Chen Rui, Curran Jude, Pu Fanrong, Zhuola Zhuola, Bayon Yves, Hunt John A
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace, School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Harrison Hughes Building, Liverpool L69 3GH, UK.
Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, William Henry Duncan Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK.
Polymers (Basel). 2017 Jun 29;9(7):254. doi: 10.3390/polym9070254.
The implantation of biomedical devices, including collagen-based implants, evokes an inflammatory response. Despite inflammation playing an important role in the early stages of wound healing, excessive and non-resolving inflammation may lead to the poor performance of biomaterial implants in some patients. Therefore, steps should be taken to control the level and duration of an inflammatory response. In this study, oxygen and nitrogen gas plasmas were employed to modify the surface of collagen film, with a view to modifying the surface properties of a substrate in order to induce changes to the inflammatory response, whilst maintaining the mechanical integrity of the underlying collagen film. The effects of cold plasma treatment and resultant changes to surface properties on the non-specific inflammatory response of the immune system was investigated in vitro in direct contact cell culture by the measurement of protein expression and cytokine production after one and four days of human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) culture. The results indicated that compared to oxygen plasma, nitrogen plasma treatment produced an anti-inflammatory effect on the collagen film by reducing the initial activation of monocytes and macrophages, which led to a lower production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNFα, and higher production of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. This was attributed to the combination of the amino chemical group and the significant reduction in roughness associated with the introduction of the nitrogen plasma treatment, which had an effect on the levels of activation of the adherent cell population.
生物医学装置的植入，包括基于胶原蛋白的植入物，会引发炎症反应。尽管炎症在伤口愈合的早期阶段发挥着重要作用，但过度且无法消退的炎症可能会导致一些患者体内生物材料植入物的性能不佳。因此，应该采取措施来控制炎症反应的程度和持续时间。在本研究中，采用氧气和氮气等离子体对胶原膜表面进行改性，目的是改变基底的表面性质，以诱导炎症反应发生变化，同时保持底层胶原膜的机械完整性。通过在人外周血单核细胞（PBMC）培养1天和4天后测量蛋白质表达和细胞因子产生，在体外直接接触细胞培养中研究了冷等离子体处理及其导致的表面性质变化对免疫系统非特异性炎症反应的影响。结果表明，与氧等离子体相比，氮等离子体处理通过减少单核细胞和巨噬细胞的初始活化对胶原膜产生抗炎作用，这导致促炎细胞因子IL-1β和TNFα的产生降低，抗炎细胞因子IL-10的产生增加。这归因于氨基化学基团与氮等离子体处理引入后粗糙度的显著降低的结合，这对贴壁细胞群体的活化水平产生了影响。
