Valvular Interstitial Cells On Self Assembled Monolayers Presenting Different Surface Chemistries

It has been widely demonstrated that the surface properties of a biomaterial modulate cellular adhesion to elicit diverse cellular responses. The overall goal of our laboratory is to engineer biomaterial scaffolds for heart valve tissue engineering that direct tissue formation without the use of exogenous factors. In this study, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols on gold-coated glass substrates were employed as model surfaces to isolate and investigate the effect of surface chemistry on the attachment, proliferation, phenotypic expression, and extra-cellular matrix production of the myofibroblasts found within the aortic heart valve leaflet, the valvular interstitial cells (VICs). SAMs presenting well defined chemistry surfaces were created to examine the effects of hydrophobic (CH3), hydrophilic (OH), negative charged (COOH), and positive charged (NH2) surface chemistries on VIC functions. SAMs were characterized by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and goniometry. Initial cell studies with primary porcine VICs show no difference in cellular attachment between the different SAM surfaces in the absence of serum proteins. After 3 days in static culture, cellular proliferation varied significantly, following the pattern OH>COOH>CH3. Details of further work on gene expression, phenotypic expression, and extra-cellular matrix production will be presented.