The demand for novel biocompatible materials as surface coating in the field of regenerative medicine is high. We explored molecular layer deposition (MLD) technique for building surface coatings and introduced a new group of substrates consisting of amino acids, or nucleobases, and the biocompatible metal titanium. The substrates were built from titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) with l-lysine, glycine, l-aspartic acid, l-arginine, thymine, uracil, and adenine. Substrates based on zirconium chloride and terephthalic acid were also included. Titanium oxide (TiO2 ) substrates made by atomic layer deposition and uncoated cover slips served as controls. Rat conjunctival epithelial goblet cells were grown in RPMI 1640 and RT-PCR, immunofluorescence, cell attachment, proliferation, and viability were analyzed. Cells cultured on MLD and uncoated substrates were proliferating (positive for Ki67). Cell attachment after 3 h of culture on MLD substrates was similar to uncoated coverslips (p > 0.05). Compared to uncoated coverslips, cell proliferation assayed with alamarBlue® after 4 days was significantly higher on all MLD substrates (p < 0.05), whereas terephthalic acid-containing MLD substrates reduced proliferation (p < 0.01). Viability assessed by LIVE/DEAD® was high (>85%) for all substrates after 5 days. The novel MLD technique is promising for building biocompatible substrates that direct epithelial cell growth. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 3090-3098, 2018.
Keywords: biocompatible substrates; biocompatible thin films; epithelial cells; goblet cells; molecular layer deposition.
© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.