Tuning myoblast and preosteoblast cell adhesion site, orientation and elongation through electroactive micropatterned scaffolds

Abstract

Electroactive polymers are being increasingly used in tissue engineering applications. Together with the electromechanical clues, morphological ones have been demonstrated to determine cell proliferation and differentiation. This work reports on the micro patterning of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) - P(VDF-TrFE) scaffolds - and their interaction with myoblast and pre-osteoblasts cell lines, selected based on their different functional morphology. The scaffolds were obtained by soft lithography and obtained in the form of arrays of lines, intermittent lines, hexagons, linear zigzags and curved zigzags with dimensions of 25, 75 and 150 µm. Moreover, the scaffolds were tested in cell adhesion assays of myoblasts and pre-osteoblasts cell lines. The results show that more linear surface topographies and dense morphology have a large potential in the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissue while non-patterned scaffolds or more anisotropic surface microstructures present largest potential to promote the growth and regeneration of bone tissue. In this way, cell adhesion site, orientation and elongation can be controlled by choosing properly the topography and morphology of the scaffolds, indicating their suitability and potential for further proliferation and differentiation assays.