Sol-gel derived titania coatings for cell-culture substrates

摘要

Titania ceramics, alumina ceramics and glass were coated with sol-gel derived titania films to fabricate cell culture scaffolds for ARC (adult rat heart muscle cells). These coatings mask the differences in surface chemistry of the substrates, thus allowing to evaluate specific cell responses to changes in topography. In order to achieve reproducible coatings, dip-coating was performed by immersing the substrates into a sol and retracting them at a defined rate of 0.5 mm sec~(-1). Titania scaffolds were seeded with freshly isolated rat cardiomyocytes in M199 medium (Gibco, Scotland) supplemented with 20percent fetal calf serum, creatine and penicillin/streptomycin and incubated at 37 deg C, 5percent humidity. The topography of the substrates and the films were characterized by SEM and laser profilometry. The topography of the substrates and the films were characterized by SEM and laser profilometry. The topography in the nanometer range was characterized by AFM. The surface roghness of the uncoated substrates varied from R_a=0.5 mu m (glass) to R_a=0.9 mu m (alumina) to R_a=1.6 mu m (titania). SEM characterization of the coatings showed, that the grain size of the sol-gel derived titania layers was in the range of 20-50 nm. Microscopical characterization of the cell morphology indicated that the sol-gel derived titania coatings prevented cell spreading for a culture period of 9 days.