Enhancement the Growth of Human Endothelial Cells by Surface Roughness at Nanometer Scale

This study investigated whether a nano-meter
scale of surface roughness could improve the
adhesion and growth of human endothelial cells
on biomaterial surface. Different molecular
weights or chain lengths of polyethylene glycol
(PEG) were mixed and then grafted to
polyurethane (PU) surface, a model smooth
surface, to form a nano-meter (nm) scale of
roughness for PU-PEG surfaces (PU-PEG mix)
while PEG with molecular weight of 2000 was
also grafted to PU to form PU-PEG 2000 for
comparison. In addition, the concept was tested
on cell adhesive peptide Gly-Arg-Gly-Asp
(GRGD) was photochemically grafted to
PU-PEG mix and PU-PEG 2000 surfaces (e.g.,
PU-PEG mix -GRGD and PU-PEG 2000 -GRGD
surfaces, respectively). The adhesion and growth
of HUVECs for the roughness surfaces were
statistical significantly better than that of
smooth surface for both GRGD grafted and
un-grafted surfaces, respectively.
In conclusion, increased surface roughness of
biomaterial surfaces even at 10~102 nm scale
could enhance the adhesion and growth of
HUVECs on roughness surfaces that could be
worth for applications of tissue engineering.