Silicon nanowire/polycaprolactone composites and their impact on stromal cell function
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Giridhar R. Akkaraju Department of Biology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas 76129 (Received 21 May 2012; accepted 20 July 2012)
In this study, silicon nanowire (SiNW)/polycaprolactone composites with different surface topographies were fabricated by straightforward embedding or printing methods and their cytocompatibility was evaluated with a bone-relevant cell line derived from mouse stroma. The incorporation of biocompatible polymers with semiconducting SiNWs can ideally provide an enhanced environment to support proliferation and differentiation functions of bone cells. Cell/composite interactions were assessed with suitable assays including viability and alkaline phosphatase activity, while scanning electron microscopy characterization was used to study the morphology of cells grown on composites. Such results suggest that for nanowires in a vertical array, the presence of the polymer improves cellular attachment and overall viability relative to the nanowire-only system.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the nanoscale regime, cell properties—viability, proliferation, differentiation—have been sensitive to surface topography of the biomaterial scaffold, as exemplified in the case of nanoposts,1 nanotubes,2 and nanoislands.3 For the particular case of bone-related functions, it is widely accepted that an ideal orthopedic biomaterial must possess suitable surface features to allow the initial attachment and osteogenic differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells in vitro and in vivo.4 Surface composition and associated energetics are also critical to ultimate tissue engineering functions.5,6 Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are an intriguing candidate as a component in such structures, given their properties emerging from fundamental studies relevant to biosensors,7,8 photonics,9 and field-effect transistors.10 More recently, considerable experiments have been undertaken to evaluate the role of SiNWs in affecting cellular functions or delivering biomolecules into cells,11–15 including the role of surface chemistry.16 Early work from our group suggested that SiNWs are cytocompatible (to fibroblasts),17 readily functionalized to accommodate acellular calcification (through a calcium ion seed layer), with more recent studies demonstrating that sensitive changes in surface chemistry strongly influence the extent of proliferation of bone precursor cells.18 Taking into account the fact that silicon has a major contributor to a)
Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2012.265 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 28, No. 2, Jan 28, 2013
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bone growth and early stages of mineralization,19,20 we hypothesized that the integration of SiNWs in the development of novel composite biomaterials could provide a suitable environment to support bone cell functions and bone growth, thereby being potentially useful in bone tissue engineering applications. Generally, a desirable tissue engineering scaffold should be adaptable to irregular wound sites.21 Given the f
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