Evaluation of cell behavior on modified polypropylene with swift heavy ion irradiation

C. R. ARBEITMAN; I. IBAÑEZ; G. GARCÍA BERMÚDEZ; H. DURÁN; M.F. DEL GROSSO; N.G. SALGUERO; R. O. MAZZEI

Itapema

Conferencia; 20th International Conference on Ion Beam Analysis; 2011

The cellular activities on the surface of synthetic polymers are a key factor in many biomedical and biotechnological applications. It has been know that certain surface characteristics of the polymer materials such as surface energy, hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, charge property, topography and chemical composition induces changes in the cellular responses. Several studies have been focused on modifying the surface chemistry to improve the biocompatibility of substrates and to enhance cell attachment and growth [1]. The main characteristic of ion beam irradiation is to induce bio and citocompatibility in controlled conditions and in selected areas of the polymer surface [2].Polypropylene (PP) is a biomaterial that has been widely used as non absorbable surgical suture. However his lack of cell recognition sites and hydrophobic surface leads to poor cell adhesion and spreading, limit its use as culture substrates. We previously reported that changes in PP polymer due to high energy irradiation have an important effect on the initial adhesion of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts [3]. The enhancement of cell adhesion does not mean that the surface is adequate as a substrate for functional cells. The purpose of the present work, is to deepen the study in order to determine proliferation and changes in cytoskeleton and cell morphology on substrates as a function of different irradiations parameters. We irradiated with sulfur (S) ion-beam provided by the Tandar Accelerator (Buenos Aires, Argentina) at energies of 110 MeV with fluences between 1 x 106 to 2 x 1010 ions cm-2. (Surface irradiation modified) The modifications of the irradiated surface were evaluated with different techniques. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts NIH 3T3 cell line were cultured on each sample. Cell morphology was observed using phase contrast microscopy and focal adhesion and cytoskeleton proteins were observed with fluorescence microscopy. Cell shape and inmunocytochemical analysis showed large differences with irradiations conditions, it strongly suggests that different underlying substratum can result in distinct types of cytoskeleton reorganization, exercising influence in cellular responses.