Enhancement of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) adhesion, proliferation and long-term cell growth on PDMS surfaces : the interplay between different substratum physical properties

• Main Author: Heng, Zhi Ting
• Other Authors: Wang Dongan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68099
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a popular biomaterial used for microscale-cell analysis in microfluidic chips as a result of its numerous advantages such as low toxicity level, ease of modification and biocompatibility. However, the innate hydrophobicity of PDMS poses a problem for cell binding onto its substrates and surface modification on PDMS would be necessary to enhance the attachment of cells and subsequent cell growth. This study explores the effect of plasma treatment on PDMS in the application of BMSC culture as plasma treatment is a relatively simple and cost-effective surface modification technique. In addition, PDMS substrates of different prepolymer base to curing agent ratio were fabricated to examine the influence of physical substratum properties on BMSC behavior. Results from this study have shown that plasma treatment on PDMS surface can significantly promote BMSC adhesion and cell proliferation rate, thereby, enabling a stable and confluent cell sheet formation. Surface characterization analysis has also revealed a variation in the physical substratum properties of plasma treated PDMS substrates, where a higher surface roughness and a low water contact angle were observed. This suggests that physical substratum properties can influence cell behavior. PDMS substrates of various base to curing agent ratio also exhibit different substratum properties, however, there are no significant improvement in the long-term cell growth. Findings in this study may be useful for future research in the fabrication of biomaterials and application of BMSC cell growth.