Mouse preosteoblasts

Another interesting approach is to use nanofiber scaffolds as a crystallization matrix to mimic biological composites. Xia and coworkers were able to produce meshes with a gradient of calcium phosphate content to mimic the tendon-to-bone insertion site [206], The variation in composition led to an interesting spatial gradient in stiffness of the scaffold. This was also reflected in an activity gradient of seeded mouse preosteoblast cells. 

FIGURE 2.9 Effect of chitosan on adhesion, proliferation and viability of MC3T3-E1 subclone 4 mouse preosteoblasts cells, (a) Cells readily attach to all of the nanocomposites surface and exhibit protruding arms due to focal adhesion. The addition of chitosan results in enhanced (b) cell adhesion and (c) spreading on the nanocomposites surface as quantified using Image (NIH). (d) All the nanocomposites support cell proliferation, (e) Viability of cells remains high. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [85] American Chemical Society. 

Other applications use self-assembling fibers to coat materials. For example, preassembled peptide amphiphiles have been covalently immobilized on titanium implant surfaces via a silane layer (Sargeant et al., 2008). Primary bovine artery endothelial cells or mouse calvarial preosteoblastic cells spread on these coated surface and proliferated to a far greater extent than on samples where the peptide amphiphiles had been drop cast onto the metal surface. This study therefore suggests that covalent attachment is required in order to prevent fibers lifting from the coated surface and to encourage maximal cell growth. 

---