Nanoscale topographic changes on sterilized glass surfaces affect cell adhesion and spreading

Abstract

Producing sterile glass surfaces is of great importance for a wide range of laboratory and medical applications, including in vitro cell culture and tissue engineering. However, sterilization may change the surface properties of glass and thereby affect its use for medical applications, for instance as a substrate for culturing cells. To investigate potential effects of sterilization on glass surface topography, borosilicate glass coverslips were left untreated or subjected to several common sterilization procedures, including low-temperature plasma gas, gamma irradiation and steam. Imaging by atomic force microscopy demonstrated that the surface of untreated borosilicate coverslips features a complex landscape of microislands ranging from 1000 to 3000 nm in diameter and 1 to 3 nm in height. Steam treatment completely removes these microislands, producing a nanosmooth glass surface. In contrast, plasma treatment partially degrades the microisland structure, while gamma irradiation has no effect on microisland topography. To test for possible effects of the nanotopographic structures on cell adhesion, human gingival fibroblasts were seeded on untreated or sterilized glass surfaces. Analyzing fibroblast adhesion 3, 6, and 24 h after cell seeding revealed significant differences in cell attachment and spreading depending on the sterilization method applied. Furthermore, single-cell force spectroscopy revealed a connection between the nanotopographic landscape of glass and the formation of cellular adhesion forces, indicating that fibroblasts generally adhere weakly to nanosmooth but strongly to nanorough glass surfaces. Nanotopographic changes induced by different sterilization methods may therefore need to be considered when preparing sterile glass surfaces for cell culture or biomedical applications.

Effects of different sterilization methods on surface characteristics and biofilm formation on zirconia in vitro

“…For surface free energy, the zirconia samples increased after sterilization treatments in all groups in our study. The result is consistent with a study by Wittenburg also revealed that steam sterilized glass exhibited significantly lower contact angle values than untreated glass samples [43]. A study by Kummer et al which found that UV irradiation on Ti could increase the formation of Ti-OH and result in the increase of surface wettability and surface energy [14].…”

Effect of Sterilization on the Properties of a Bioactive Hybrid Coating Containing Hydroxyapatite

“…e reduction of the density of CH 3 groups compared to the hydroxyl groups has an important influence by increasing the hydrophilic behavior [17] of the sterilized hybrid coatings. Similar results were published by Wittenburg et al [36] and Han et al [37] when glass and zirconia surfaces were sterilized using similar processes. e highest contact angle values were found for the autoclaved samples, followed by the samples sterilized with ethylene oxide, and hydrogen peroxide plasma.…”

Primary human nasal epithelial cell response to titanium surface with a nanonetwork structure in nasal implant applications

“…Some opposite results have been also reported [40,41]. On the other hand, no correlation is observed between the surface hydrophilicity and cell adhesion [42,43]. In this study, the anodized E1 and E2 specimens with super hydrophilic surface (PBS contact angle <5°) revealed better HNEpC attachment, spreading, and proliferation than the nonanodized M specimens.…”