Substrate
wettability and stiffness, two factors impacting cell
behaviors simultaneously, have been attracting much attention to elaborate
which one dominates. In this study, hydrophilic poly(2-hydroxyethyl
methacrylate) brushes were grafted onto the surfaces of poly(dimethylsiloxane)
(PDMS) with elastic moduli of 3.66, 101.65 and 214.97 MPa and decreasing
water contact angle from 120.4° to 38.5°. Cell behaviors
of three cell lines including mBMSCs, ATDC-5, and C28/I2 were then
investigated on the hydrophilic and hydrophobic PDMS with different
stiffness, respectively. The proliferation of three cell lines was
faster on the hydrophilic PDMS than the hydrophobic PDMS, but the
stiffness of the hydrophilic or hydrophobic PDMS did not have a significant
impact on cell proliferation. The increase of the stiffness enhanced
cell migration, the cell spread and the gene expression proportion
of extracellular matrix/intercellular adhesion molecules (integrin
+ FAK/NCAM + N-cadherin) for all three cell lines, but the increase
of the wettability showed small enhancement in cell migration, cell
spread and gene expression. Moreover, the cartilage-specific gene
expression of SOX9 and COL2 downregulated for all three cell lines
with the increasing stiffness. The interpretation of the effect of
substrate wettability and stiffness on cell behaviors would function
as very useful guideline to direct scaffold fabrication.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.