Issue 41, 2022

Detachment of bovine corneal endothelial cell sheets by cooling-induced surface hydration of poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate]-based thermoresponsive copolymer coating

Abstract

Cell sheet technology (CST) is a fascinating scaffoldless tissue engineering technique to generate a physiologically representative tissue replacement from autologous sources. As compared to conventional enzymatic cell harvesting methods, CST enables the preservation of important cell-to-cell junctions and extracellular matrix (ECM) components. However, covalent grafting methods are often employed for CST. In this study, a series of triblock copolymers with a hydrophobic and biocompatible poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (PHB) central block flanked by varying lengths of terminal poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) blocks (PNIPAAm-PHB-PNIPAAm) was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization of NIPAAm. The thermoresponsive triblock copolymers were explored as a non-covalent surface coating for culturing and detaching bovine corneal endothelial cell (BCEC) sheets. Aqueous solutions of the triblock copolymers produced thermosensitive micelles which can be drop-casted on glass substrates, resulting in a temperature-responsive surface. Importantly, incorporating a central hydrophobic PHB block enabled the anchoring of the coating to the bare substrate and enhanced the proliferation rate of the BCECs studied. Effective detachment of an intact cell sheet was also demonstrated via a cooling treatment at 4 °C for 20 min, and the viability of the detached cell sheet was found to be unaffected by the cooling. This work may potentially inspire more studies involving the non-covalent thermoresponsive polymer coatings for corneal tissue engineering applications.

Graphical abstract: Detachment of bovine corneal endothelial cell sheets by cooling-induced surface hydration of poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate]-based thermoresponsive copolymer coating

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 sep. 2022
Accepted
08 oct. 2022
First published
10 oct. 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2022,10, 8407-8418

Detachment of bovine corneal endothelial cell sheets by cooling-induced surface hydration of poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate]-based thermoresponsive copolymer coating

W. W. M. Soh, J. Zhu, X. Song, D. Jain, E. K. F. Yim and J. Li, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2022, 10, 8407 DOI: 10.1039/D2TB01926D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements