Irradiation of Polystyrene and Polypropylene to study NIH 3T3 fibroblasts adhesion

ARBEITMAN C.R.; DEL GROSSO, M.F.; IBAÑEZ, IRENE; GARCÍA BERMÚDEZ, G.; DURÁN, H.; CHAPPA, V.C.; MAZZEI, R.; BEHAR, M.

Padova

Simposio; 15th International Symposium "Radiation Effects in Insulators" (REI-15); 2009

University of Padova and the University of Venice

When polymers are irradiated with heavy ions new chemical groups are created into a few microns of the material changing the surface polarity and wettability. In general these changes could enhance the biocompatibility of the modified polymer. The surface chemistry and nanoescale topography of biomaterials are important for many potential applications in medicine and biotechnology because of their strong influence on cell function, adhesion and proliferation. The use of heavy ion beams to modify polymers could be an interesting application in tissue engineering. In this study, thin foils of Polystyrene and Polypropylene samples were modified by irradiation with low energy ion beams (30-150 keV) and swift heavy ions both with various fluences and energies. Characterization of the changes produced on the surface structure was evaluated with different methods.Adhesion of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts onto unirradiated and irradiated surfaces has been studied by in vitro technique. The cell adhesion on the modified polymer was correlated to the physico chemical properties of the surface as a function of different irradiation parameters. Publicado en Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 268 (2010) 3059–3062