System for Patterning Polydopamine and VAPG Peptide on Polytetrafluoroethylene and Biodegradable Polyesters for Patterned Growth of Smooth Muscle Cells In Vitro

Kamil Kopeć; Rafał Podgórski; Tomasz Ciach; Michał Wojasiński

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c02114

System for Patterning Polydopamine and VAPG Peptide on Polytetrafluoroethylene and Biodegradable Polyesters for Patterned Growth of Smooth Muscle Cells In Vitro

ACS Omega. 2023 Jun 5;8(24):22055-22066. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c02114. eCollection 2023 Jun 20.

Authors

Kamil Kopeć¹, Rafał Podgórski¹, Tomasz Ciach^{1

2}, Michał Wojasiński¹

Affiliations

¹ Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering, Department of Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, Waryńskiego 1, 00-645 Warsaw, Poland.
² Warsaw University of Technology, CEZAMAT, Poleczki 19, 02-822 Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

Biomaterial's surface functionalization for selective adhesion and patterned cell growth remains essential in developing novel implantable medical devices for regenerative medicine applications. We built and applied a 3D-printed microfluidic device to fabricate polydopamine (PDA) patterns on the surface of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), poly(l-lactic acid-co-D,l-lactic acid) (PLA), and poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA). Then, we covalently attached the Val-Ala-Pro-Gly (VAPG) peptide to the created PDA pattern to promote the adhesion of the smooth muscle cells (SMCs). We proved that the fabrication of PDA patterns allows for the selective adhesion of mouse fibroblast and human SMCs to PDA-patterned surfaces after only 30 min of in vitro cultivation. After 7 days of SMC culture, we observed the proliferation of cells only along the patterns on PTFE but over the entire surface of the PLA and PLGA, regardless of patterning. This means that the presented approach is beneficial for application to materials resistant to cell adhesion and proliferation. The additional attachment of the VAPG peptide to the PDA patterns did not bring measurable benefits due to the high increase in adhesion and patterned cell proliferation by PDA itself.