Attachment and Proliferation of Human Dermal Fibroblasts onto ECM-Immobilized PLGA Films

Abstract

In this study, human dermal fibroblast behaviors onto non-porous PLGA (75:25) films immobilized with 1, 10 and 100 µg/ml collagen (CN) or fibronectin (FN) were investigated according to different cell-seeding densities (1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 cells/ml). Cell attachment and proliferation were assessed using water soluble tetrazolium salt. The results indicated that 1 µg/ml of FN-immobilized PLGA film demonstrated significantly (p < 0.05) superior cellular attachment to the intact PLGA film after 4 hr of incubation. Moreover, the number of attached cells was shown to be directly proportional to that of initially seeded cells. After 48 hr, the cells showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher proliferation onto 1 or 10 µg/ml of FN-immobilized PLGA films than onto other PLGA films, regardless of the initial cell-seeding density. In terms of CN-immobilization, cell proliferation was appreciably increased but it was relatively lower than FN-immobilization. These results suggested that ECM-immobilization can enhance the cell affinity of hydrophobic scaffolds and be used to potential applications for tissue engineering by supporting cell growth.