Controlling cell morphology on amino acid-modified cellulose

Abstract

This study shows that it is possible to affect the morphology and spreading of fibroblast cells on amino acid-modified cellulose-based fibrous networks. Hydrophilic (Gly, Ser), aliphatic (Ala, Val, Leu, Ile) and aromatic amino acids (Phe, Tyr, Trp), coupled to the cellulose via esterification, give rise to different cell morphologies. Modified cellulosic substrates are analysed using time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), demonstrating that amino acids are coupled and uniformly distributed over the surface of the samples. Remarkably, it is shown that it is the aromatic amino acids, and in particular Trp, that give rise to significantly enhanced cell spreading. This enhanced effect is shown to be linked to an increase in the adsorption of fibronectin in the presence of aromatic bound amino acids

Characterisation of amino acid modified cellulose surfaces using ToF-SIMS and XPS

“…An invariant Fmocprotected water contact angle was observed, and a correlation of the water contact angle with the side chain hydrophobicity was reported after Fmoc deprotection (Rawsterne et al 2007). In contrast to this, our previous study reported a variable water contact angle for different Fmoc-amino acid modified celluloses, suggesting variable levels of coupling (Kalaskar et al 2008). However, in the work of Rawsterne et al (2007) a quantitative analysis of chemical modification was not reported, and thus information on single amino acids coupling on glass coverslips is not available.…”

“…However, we have shown in a previous study that after chemical coupling with Fmoc-protected amino acids, surface hydrophobicity increases significantly (Kalaskar et al 2008). Rawsterne et al (2007) coupled Fmoc-protected amino acids on glass coverslips.…”

“…diagnosis of disease, cell function etc.). We have reported proof of principle investigations of amino acid modification of cellulose and its effect on surface wettability (Kalaskar et al 2008), however, this was not combined with a quantitative XPS analysis for different amino acid groups. In the present study, the qualitative molecular characterisation of the surface after amino acid modification was achieved by ToF-SIMS (Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry), and the chemistry of these surfaces is quantitatively determined using XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy).…”

Oriented surfaces of adsorbed cellulose nanowhiskers promote skeletal muscle myogenesis

“…The explanation of the phenomenon is complicated, however, by the chemical, topographical and possibly mechanical heterogeneity of the surfaces, with both cellulose and PAHCl-coated glass regions presented to the cells. As both PAHCl and model cellulose-I surfaces have been reported elsewhere to support cell adhesion and serum protein adsorption, it seems unlikely that the chemical heterogeneity of the surfaces is responsible for modulating cell adhesion leading to bulk contact guidance and orientation [12,[32][33][34]. We therefore postulate that the anisotropic nanoscale topography or mechanical properties of the adsorbed CNW surfaces induce contact guidance in the C2C12 myoblasts.…”

Directed cell growth in multi-zonal scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering

“…Chemical cues that emulate the ECM environment and potentially tune the cell phenotypic state were incorporated in the form of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) [33,34] that carry a small number of sulfate (S-CNCs, 98.5 ± 8.2 mmol/Kg) or phosphate (P-CNCs, 10.1 ± 1.6 mmol/Kg) ester groups on their surface (Supporting Information Figure S1). The dimensions of the nanocrystals were determined to be 200 ± 54 nm in length and 25 ± 4 nm in diameter for S-CNCs and 199 ± 56 nm and 23 ± 5 nm for PCNCs (Supplementary Figure S2).…”