Cells may feel a hard substrate even on a grafted layer of soft hydrogel

Abstract

Different cells have diverse sensibility to sense the substrate on grafted soft hydrogel layers with variable depth.

The thickness of poly‐phenoxyethyl methacrylate brush interferes with cellular behavior and function of myofibers

“…C2C12 myoblasts were seeded on the PHEMA brush and differentiated through horse serum for analyzing the sensibility of muscle cells to feel environment changing, and further investigate whether physical properties of the biomaterial surfaces are important factors in regulating muscle cell behavior. Our previous reports suggested that precursor chondrocyte cultured on the substrates with short PHEMA brushes developed a spread morphology, but cells on long PHEMA brushes displayed a more rounded shape . However, in contrast to the results of chondrocyte line, here, our data showed that the thicker brushes (200 and 450 nm) were much better than the thinner ones (50 nm), for myoblast survival and proliferation, which indicates the direct interference of the brush depth for myoblast activities.…”

“…Myoblasts cultured on the bare glass were taken as a control. Previously, we have shown that BMSCs, ATDC5, and HC cells proliferated well on the PHEMA brushes, and these cells show higher proliferation on the bare glass or on the substrate having a thinner brush depth . However, we noted aberrant result for myoblast.…”

“…The experiment process is illustrated in Figure (A). PHEMA brushes were grafted on coverslips by the SI‐ATRP method, as we reported previously . SI‐ATRP is a grafting technique which modifies the chemical composition of the sample surface by introducing the ATRP initiator in a mild condition.…”

“…Then grafting PHEMA brushes on the coverslip by the SI‐ATRP method was conducted as the steps descripted in Ref. . Briefly, ATRP‐initiator, BIBB, was first introduced on the coverslip by immersing it in an anhydrous DCM solution containing TEA (2%, v/v) and BIBB (0.04%, v/v) in a bottle.…”

“…Excellent antifouling ability and high structural stability make PHEMA the promising biomaterials for biomedical applications . Recently, we polymerized hydroxyethyl methacrylate (PHEMA) on a glass substrate via the surface‐initiated atomic transfer radical polymerization (SI‐ATRP) method, allowing us to control the thickness and composition of the polymer brush accurately . To study whether grafting thickness of biomimetic layer on the substrate leads to the myoblasts/myofiber behavior change, this study explores muscle cell response on PHEMA brush with different thicknesses, which would be valuable for the design and preparation of the modified layer on muscle tissue engineering scaffolds.…”