Regulation of vascular smooth muscle cells on poly(ethylene terephthalate) film by O‐carboxymethylchitosan surface immobilization

Abstract Specifying the chemical environment of cells is a well‐established method of controlling cellular behaviors. In this study, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film was selected as a typical biomaterial to detect the effects of chemical modifications on material surface in controlling cell behaviors. Natural biopolymer chitosan and its biocompatible derivative, O‐carboxymethylchitosan (OCMCS) were surface immobilized on PET, respectively, via argon plasma followed by graft copolymerization with acrylic acid (AAc), which was exploited to covalently couple PET with chitosan (CS) and OCMCS molecules. Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) displayed a surface‐dependent cell spreading and cytoskeletal organization. The cells spread with a more pronounced elongated spindle shape, smaller cell area, and lower cell shape index (CSI) on OCMCS‐modified PET surface than on PET, or the PAA and chitosan‐immobilized PET surfaces after 24 h of culture. Cell‐culture viability after 5 days showed that all the modified materials possessed good cell proliferation. Our results suggest that cell adhesion, morphology, and growth can be mediated not only by varying the functional groups, electric charge, and wettability of PET surface but also by the specific biological recognition elicited from the biomaterials. These findings strongly support the concept that the microenvironment significantly influences cell behavior, highlighting the importance of environmental material biochemistry in cell‐based tissue engineering schemes. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2008