J Mater Sci Technol ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (12): 1119-1126.

• Novel Processing and Characterization Methods • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Synthesis of a Kind of Temperature-responsive Cell Culture Surface for Corneal Sheet

Yanqing Guan, Zhibin Li, Xin Wang, Xiaoli Ni, Aini Yang, Junming Liu   

  1. 1) School of Life Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
    2) School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
    3) Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
    4) International Center for Materials Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
  • Received:2009-10-14 Revised:2010-01-20 Online:2010-12-31 Published:2010-12-21
  • Contact: GUAN Yan-Qing
  • Supported by:

    the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 30970731 and 50832002), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 9151063101000015). The authors thank Professor Zhicong Wang (State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Guangzhou) for kindly providing corneal epithelial cells and thank Professors Qili Fen and Changlian Peng for useful comments.

Abstract: In this study, acrylic acid (AA) and 4-azidoaniline were used to modify poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (NI-PAAm) in order to fabricate temperature-responsive surface for corneal epithelia cell adhesion and detachment. First, NIPAAm was copolymerized with acrylic acid. Then, the copolymer was coupled with azidoaniline to synthesize AzPhPIA, derivative of p(NIPAAm-co-AA), which possesses both thermo- and photo-sensitivities. Second, the synthesized copolymer was characterized by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and a CHN analyzer. The thermo-sensitivity was characterized by temperature reducing experiment, contact angle measurement and low critical solution temperature (LCST) testing. Third, the derivatized copolymer was immobilized by photolithography on a polystyrene plate, and then the surface characterization of AzPhPIA-coated polystyrene plate (PSt) was measured by electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA). The thermo-sensitivity and cytocompatibility of the AzPhPIA-coated PSt were investigated by corneal epithelial cells culture. The results revealed that the AzPhPIA-coated PSt exhibited good cytocompatibility and cell detachability when temperature decreased.

Key words: N-isopropylacrylamide, Low critical solution temperature, Tissue engineering, Corneal epithelial cells