title: Combinatorial plasma polymerization approach to produce thin films for testing cell proliferation.
abstract: Plasma enhanced physical vapor depositions are extensively used to fabricate substrates for cell culture applications. One peculiarity of the plasma processes is the possibility to deposit thin films with reproducible chemical and physical properties. In the present work, a combinatorial plasma polymerization process was used to deposit thin carbon based films to promote cell adhesion, in the interest of testing cell proliferation as a function of the substrate chemical properties. Peculiarity of the combinatorial approach is the possibility to produce in just one deposition experiment, a set of surfaces of varying chemical moieties by changing the precursor composition. A full characterization of the chemical, physical and thermodynamic properties was performed for each set of the synthesized surfaces. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to measure the concentration of carboxyl, hydroxyl and amine functional groups on the substrate surfaces. A perfect linear trend between polar groups' density and precursors' concentration was found. Further analyses reveled that also contact angles and the correspondent surface energies of all deposited thin films are linearly dependent on the precursor concentration. To test the influence of the surface composition on the cell adhesion and proliferation, two cancer cell lines were utilized. The cell viability was assessed after 24 h and 48 h of cell culture. Experiments show that we are able to control the cell adhesion and proliferation by properly changing the thin film deposition conditions i.e. the concentration and the kind of chemical moiety on the substrate surface. The results also highlight that physical and chemical factors of biomaterial surface, including surface hydrophobicity and free energy, chemical composition, and topography, can altered cell attachment.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Biofisica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, v. alla Cascata 56/C, 38123 Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Antonini
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Bruno Kessler, v. Sommarie 18, 38123 Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torrengo
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Bruno Kessler, v. Sommarie 18, 38123 Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marocchi
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Bruno Kessler, v. Sommarie 18, 38123 Trento, Italy; Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, v. alla Cascata 56/C, 38123 Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Minati
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Biofisica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, v. alla Cascata 56/C, 38123 Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dalla Serra
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Bruno Kessler, v. Sommarie 18, 38123 Trento, Italy; Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, v. alla Cascata 56/C, 38123 Trento, Italy. Electronic address: speranza@fbk.eu.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Speranza
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D058105:Polymerization; D013499:Surface Properties; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials
keywords: C-based thin films; Cell proliferation; Combinatorial plasma polymerization; Contact angle; XPS