Examination of cell–host–biomaterial interactions via high-throughput technologies: A re-appraisal

Abstract

Biomaterials are required to act harmoniously when exposed to the body or bodily fluids. Investigating cellular or in vivo phenotypic responses and protein adsorption to the material surface helps to determine the associated biocompatibility. Past limitations on progress in this field include time-consuming cell-based screening tools and a limited understanding of the complex nature of cell-biomaterial interactions.While high-throughput technologies by their nature are a rapid tool to derive meaning from multifaceted systems and, in recent years, the biomaterial community is beginning to take advantage of these technologies, the key observation in this Leading Opinion Paper is that the biomaterials community has been slow to accept these methods as an addition to their traditional experimentation workflow. The purpose of this paper is to review the definition and recent usage of high-throughput experiments in order to examine biomaterial interactions at the cellular and wider host level, especially as they become more relevant within the biomaterials arena encapsulating tissue engineering, gene, drug and stem cell delivery systems. The technologies under focus include rapid cell-based screening, transcriptomics and proteomics.

Differences in the expression of cell cycle genes in osteoblasts and endothelial cells cultured on the surfaces of Ti6Al4V and Ti6Al7Nb alloys

“…Despite the great interest in the issue of interplay between surface of biomaterials and cells, tissues and body fluids, knowledge of the molecular aspects of the interaction is still very limited. Therefore, molecular biology techniques have become more and more popular in the field of biomaterials engineering, allowing to predict and control the mechanisms of cell–implant interaction more effectively and, consequently, to evaluate the biocompatibility of materials intended for implantation more fully . Our earlier report was focused on comparison of thrombo‐compatibility and susceptibility to bacterial colonization of Ti6Al4V and Ti6Al7Nb alloys, and we found that niobium containing alloy is slightly less thrombogenic and more resistant to bacterial colonization, whereas vanadium containing alloy is significantly more cytotoxic.…”

Biocompatibility of Chitosan Carriers with Application in Drug Delivery

“…Actually, biocompatibility is both region- and host-dependent, meaning that different responses might be obtained when evaluating multiple sites or objectives [56]. In this respect, although when studies address these issues, the understanding of materials biocompatibility is hindered by the limited knowledge on the biological processes that are involved in material-cells interactions [56,57].…”

“…In this respect, although when studies address these issues, the understanding of materials biocompatibility is hindered by the limited knowledge on the biological processes that are involved in material-cells interactions [56,57]. This is why several high-throughput technologies are being developed and applied to this end, examining global cell-biomaterial interactions in a faster way and addressing important questions such as the pathways and networks involved in cell-material interactions [56]. …”

“…As the carrier comes in contact with the host, a sequence of events is expected to take place, potentially including carrier–protein interactions, as well as those with other surrounding macromolecules, and also the induction of inflammatory and/or immune responses [55,56]. Therefore, assessing some of these events might give potential indications on the carrier biocompatibility.…”

Quantitative proteomic analysis of human osteoblast-like MG-63 cells in response to bioinert implant material titanium and polyetheretherketone

“…High-throughput technologies, genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics are being increasingly applied in biomedical studies. Among these technologies, proteomics is the most important evaluation method [1]. Many recentlydeveloped quantitative proteomic technologies have been gradually introduced to study the cellular dynamic response to biomaterials, such as human osteoblasts cultured on differentially shaped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles [2] and human epidermal keratinocytes exposed to multi-walled carbon nanotubes [3].…”