An Evaluation of the Effects of the stiffness of Polycaprolactone on cell Proliferation

Abstract

The effects of the stiffness of a biomaterial, Polycaprolactone (PCL) has on cell proliferation were evaluated by FDA/PI staining, focal adhesion and actin cytoskeleton staining, MTT assays as well as alamarBlue assays. It has been shown that 3T3 cells, belonging to a soft tissue cell type, proliferated better on a less stiff PCL membrane. Chondrocytes being a hard tissue type of cell, had been proven to proliferate better on stiffer PCL membranes. Results from stiffness characterization showed that the stiffness of the PCL membrane is relatively proportional to its thickness. O-rings used in this study were self-designed to ensure that water contact angle measurements can be done with the PCL membrane mounted prior to in vitro studies. It has been found that by pre-treating the PCL membrane with 5M NaOH for a period of 3 hours could sufficiently lower its water contact angle and thus improving its hydrophilicity.