Nanofabricated collagen-inspired synthetic elastomers for primary rat hepatocyte culture

Synthetic substrates that mimic the properties of extracellular matrix proteins hold significant promise for use in systems designed for tissue engineering applications. In this report, we designed a synthetic polymeric substrate that is intended to mimic chemical, mechanical, and topological charac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bettinger, Christopher J., Kulig, Katherine M., Vacanti, Joseph P., Langer, Robert, Borenstein, Jeffrey T.
Other Authors: Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61681
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4255-0492
Description
Summary:Synthetic substrates that mimic the properties of extracellular matrix proteins hold significant promise for use in systems designed for tissue engineering applications. In this report, we designed a synthetic polymeric substrate that is intended to mimic chemical, mechanical, and topological characteristics of collagen. We found that elastomeric poly(ester amide) substrates modified with replica-molded nanotopographic features enhanced initial attachment, spreading, and adhesion of primary rat hepatocytes. Further, hepatocytes cultured on nanotopographic substrates also demonstrated reduced albumin secretion and urea synthesis, which is indicative of strongly adherent hepatocytes. These results suggest that these engineered substrates can function as synthetic collagen analogs for in vitro cell culture.