Matrix-Assisted Pulsed laser Evaporation-deposited Rapamycin Thin Films Maintain Antiproliferative Activity

Rodica Cristescu; Irina Negut; Anita Ioana Visan; Alexander K Nguyen; Andrew Sachan; Peter L Goering; Douglas B Chrisey; Roger J Narayan

doi:10.18063/ijb.v6i1.188

Matrix-Assisted Pulsed laser Evaporation-deposited Rapamycin Thin Films Maintain Antiproliferative Activity

Int J Bioprint. 2020 Jan 30;6(1):188. doi: 10.18063/ijb.v6i1.188. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Rodica Cristescu¹, Irina Negut¹, Anita Ioana Visan¹, Alexander K Nguyen^{2

3}, Andrew Sachan⁴, Peter L Goering³, Douglas B Chrisey⁵, Roger J Narayan²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Lasers, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, P.O. Box MG-36, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania.
² UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
³ Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
⁴ Wake Technical Community College, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Abstract

Matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) has many benefits over conventional methods (e.g., dip-coating, spin coating, and Langmuir-Blodgett dip-coating) for manufacturing coatings containing pharmacologic agents on medical devices. In particular, the thickness of the coating that is applied to the surface of the medical device can be tightly controlled. In this study, MAPLE was used to deposit rapamycin-polyvinylpyrrolidone (rapamycin-PVP) thin films onto silicon and borosilicate optical glass substrates. Alamar Blue and PicoGreen studies were used to measure the metabolic health and DNA content of L929 mouse fibroblasts as measures of viability and proliferation, respectively. The cells on the MAPLE-deposited rapamycin-PVP surfaces exhibited 70.6% viability and 53.7% proliferation compared to a borosilicate glass control. These data indicate that the antiproliferative properties of rapamycin were maintained after MAPLE deposition.

Keywords: Drug delivery; Matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation; Rapamycin; Thin film.