Comparison of primary rat hepatocyte attachment to collagen and plasma-polymerised allylamine on glass

Cellular attachment to substrata is a crucial stage in cell culture and tissue engineering. Many cells including hepatocytes attach poorly to synthetic substrata and favour attachment to ECM proteins. Currently, cellular attachment to synthetic materials is often optimised by applying ECM protein coatings such as collagen. In this work, ppAAm was examined as an alternative coating method to collagen type-I gel to promote attachment of primary rat hepatocytes to glass. XPS analysis was used to quantify the composition of the nitrogen containing ppAAm surfaces where the nitrogen is present in the form of amine, imine and possibly amide functionalities. Phase contrast microscopy and total cellular protein measurements indicated that hepatocyte attachment to glass was significantly improved by coating with ppAAm, collagen type-I gel or collagen type-I gel on ppAAm. In addition, cytochrome P450 activity and albumin secretion of hepatocytes cultured on ppAAm were similar to the levels observed in hepatocytes plated on collagen type-I gel or collagen type-I gel on ppAAm. In conclusion, the ppAAm coating was shown to improve the attachment of hepatocytes to glass while maintaining similarfunctionality to cells cultured on collagen type-I gel.