Prof. J. Barbara Nebe "Topography and plasmachemistry as influencing factors for cell adhesion processes"

The cell-material interaction on biomaterial surfaces (implants) can be influenced both by surface roughness (e.g. stochastic or regular geometry, micro- or nanometer scale), and by chemical functionalization (e.g. physical plasma, protein immobilization) but unfortunately, there is little knowledge of their combinatory effects.

Our focus of research was to analyze the cell behavior, in particular to understand signalling processes inside the cell, the organization of adhesion structures and, in consequence, the differentiation potential of cells induced by local physico-chemical characteristics of the biomaterial.

On plasma-modified surfaces the adhesion of cells increased significantly in combination with the roughness and the cells melt with the surface structure. Furthermore, a higher mobility of intracellular adapter proteins could be observed due to the plasma process (polymerization of allylamine).

Gaining insights into the complexity of cellular reactions at the biomaterial interface is a huge task for future research. For the design of biomaterial surfaces it is important to recognize changes of the single molecular components of cell adhesion at the material interface.

Acknowledgement: We cooperate with the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology e.V. (INP) in Greifswald, Germany. We are thankful for the financial support of the DFG: NE560/7-2 as well as of the BMBF (Germany): Campus PlasmaMed.