The role of different biomaterials on adhesion of nontransformed buccal epithelial cells.

The specific objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various biomedical polymers on the adhesion rate of buccal epithelial cells (BEC) as a model for biocompatibility. The BEC in this study were isolated, biotin labeled and seeded by following standard laboratory procedures. A total of 2.5 x 10(5) cells was plated in each microtiter-well pretreated with various concentrations of (0.01, 0.10 and 1% wt/vol) poly-L-valanine (P-Val), poly-L-alanine (P-Ala), poly-glycine (P-Gly), poly-L-tryptophan (P-Trp), poly-L-asparagine (P-Asn) and buffered control. At the end of 1, 4, and 24 hours the assay was developed by utilizing avidin-horseradish peroxidase and o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride as substrate to measure biotin-labeled-BEC. Cell number was then determined using a standard curve prepared by using known BEC number vs. absorbance units. The data from this study suggest that: (I) the ease of adhesion of BEC was in the following order: P-Val > P-Gly = P-Trp = P-Ala > P-Asn > P-Asp = Control, (II) the rate of BEC spreading was strongly influenced by both incubation time and the polymer concentration, (III) the surface attachment of BEC to the polymer were demonstrated to vary depending on their chemical structure and level of microporosity. Thus, overall observation led us to conclude that the surface reactivity of polymer materials must always be taken into account in discussing their biocompatibility in vivo.