title: Honeycomb porous films as permeable scaffold materials for human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium.
abstract: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries, characterised by the degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a pigmented cell monolayer that closely interacts with the photoreceptors. RPE transplantation is thus considered a very promising therapeutic option to treat this disease. In this work, porous honeycomb-like films are for the first time investigated as scaffold materials for human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (hESC-RPE). By changing the conditions during film preparation, it was possible to produce films with homogeneous pore distribution and adequate pore size (∼3-5 µm), that is large enough to ensure high permeability but small enough to enable cell adherence and spreading. A brief dip-coating procedure with collagen type IV enabled the homogeneous adsorption of the protein to the walls and bottom of pores, increasing the hydrophilicity of the surface. hESC-RPE adhered and proliferated on all the collagen-coated materials, regardless of small differences in pore size. The differentiation of hESC-RPE was confirmed by the detection of specific RPE protein markers. These results suggest that the porous honeycomb films can be promising candidates for hESC-RPE tissue engineering, importantly enabling the free flow of ions and molecules across the material. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1646-1656, 2016.
authors.affiliation: BioMediTech, Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Calejo
authors.affiliation: BioMediTech, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ilmarinen
authors.affiliation: BioMediTech, Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Hatai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jongprasitkul
authors.affiliation: BioMediTech, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Heli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Skottman
authors.affiliation: BioMediTech, Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Minna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kellomäki
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D017097:Electric Impedance; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D000066449:Human Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D010539:Permeability; D016062:Porosity; D055213:Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Q000166:cytology*; D013499:Surface Properties; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: honeycomb films; permeability; pluripotent stem cells; retinal pigment epithelium; tissue engineering