Endothelial cell adhesion to artificial surfaces in the presence of dextran.

• Main Author: Tan, Su Ling.
• Other Authors: Bjoern Holger Neu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering; DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Cytology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49995
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This experiment observes the adhesion of endothelial cells to artificial surfaces in the presence of dextran of various molecular weights and concentrations with the use of an inverted microscope and specialized software like the DP manager and DP controller. Cell contact areas were calculated using the NIH Image J Software. Interactions of cells were observed under both bright field (BF) mode and also the Interference reflection microscopy (IRM) mode. Polymer solutions (Dextran/PEG) of 40 kDa,70 kDa and 500 kDa at concentration 0.5,1.0,2.0 and 4.0 g/dl were tested. Adhesions in these solutions to bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein coated glass coverslips were observed. Relationship between the adhesion efficiency with concentrations and molecular weights were also observed. In the case of concentration, adhesion efficiency peaks within a small range, outside this range will weaken adhesion. In the case of molecular weight, only samples above 70 kDa have the potential to improve adhesion while less than 70 kDa (40 kDa in this case) only displayed weaken adhesion. Dextran 70 kDa of 1g/dl concentration produced the best improvement to cell adhesion while most samples of other molecular weights and concentrations weaken cell adhesion. We also observe that as the concentration is increased, cell adhesion weakens.