The use of temperature-composition combinatorial libraries to study the effects of biodegradable polymer blend surfaces on vascular cells.
Controlling cellular and physiological responses such as adhesion, proliferation and migration is a highly desirable feature of engineered scaffolds. One important application would be the design of tissue engineered vascular grafts that regulate cell adhesion and growth. We utilized temperature-composition combinatorial polymer libraries to investigate the effects of surfaces of blended poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) on murine vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC). In this manner, SMCs were exposed to approximately 1000 distinguishable surfaces in a single experiment, allowing the discovery of optimal polymer compositions and processing conditions. SMC adhesion, aggregation, proliferation, and protein production were highest in regions with mid- to high-PCL concentrations and high annealing temperatures. These regions exhibited increased surface roughness, increased microscale PLGA-rich matrix stiffness, and significant change of bulk PCL-rich crystallinity relative to other library regions. This study revealed a previously unknown processing temperature and blending composition for two well-known polymers that optimized SMC interactions.
Sung
Hak-Joon
HJ
The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Technology and Emory University, 313 Ferst Drive, Suite 1209, Atlanta, GA 30332-0535, USA. gtg525c@prism.gatech.edu
Su
Jing
J
Berglund
Joseph D
JD
Russ
Bianca V
BV
Meredith
J Carson
JC
Galis
Zorina S
ZS
D000818:Animals; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D001808:Blood Vessels; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011108:Polymers; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
D011108:Polymers