Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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Figure 12.1
Schematic explanation of different adsorption states of protein mol-
ecules on elastomer surfaces with different surface stiffness.
However, the importance of the states of mediating ECM has always been
out of discussion. We proposed the hypothesis that the adsorption state of
proteins on elastomer surfaces is responsible for different proliferation rate
of adhering fibroblasts on the elastomer surfaces having different stiffness
(Figure 12.1). Indeed, the strong liner relationship between the hydrated
viscoelasticity of the adsorbed protein layer estimated by quartz crystal
microbalance-dissipation (QCM-D) measurement, and the number of ad-
hering fibroblasts was observed.
16
This result suggests the possibility that
the surface stiffness makes an effect on the adsorption states of the protein
prior to induce the different adhesion responses of the cells. Recently, a
similar result was also reported by Amsden's group.
17
They also proposed
the similar hypothesis that the elastomer surfaces having different cross-
linking density could induce different amount of protein adsorptions. These
results indicate that the adsorption state of proteins is greatly affected by
physicochemical factors of materials surfaces, and this could be a possible
reason why cells showed different adhesion behavior on different materials
surfaces.
Although these several possibilities have been suggested, still only a lim-
ited number of reports have been dealing with the critical factors relating
to the adsorption states of the surface proteins. The dynamic nature of
hydrated polymer surfaces in aqueous media is one of the important factors
that are anticipated to impact on the states of the surface proteins. The
degree of molecular interaction between the protein molecules and the
materials surfaces, e.g., hydrophobic interaction, is one of the criteria de-
termining the adsorption states of the surface proteins as mentioned above.
In this point of view, the dynamic nature of the hydrated polymer surfaces is
anticipated to make an effect on the degree of protein-material interactions.
Based on this hypothesis, several case studies have recently been conducted
to estimate the effect of the dynamic properties of polymer surfaces on the
adsorption states of protein molecules. In this chapter, the basic concept in
designing the dynamic polymer surfaces and the adsorption behavior of
protein molecules will be introduced.
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