Corneal epithelial adhesion strength to tethered‐protein/peptide modified hydrogel surfaces

In this study, we investigated the suitability of microjet impingement for use on hydrogel materials to determine the cellular adhesion strength of corneal epithelial cells grown on novel hydrogels with extracellular matrix proteins (laminin and/or fibronectin) or a peptide sequence (fibronectin adhesion promoting peptide, FAP) tethered to their surface with poly(ethylene glycol) chains. The deformation of the hydrogel surface in response to the force of the microjet was analyzed both visually and mathematically. After the results of these experiments and calculations determined that no deformation occurred and that the pressure required for indentation (1.25 × 10⁶ Pa) was three factors of 10 greater than the maximum pressure of the microjet, the relative mean adhesion strength of primary rabbit corneal epithelial cells grown on the novel poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate‐co‐methacrylic acid) hydrogels was determined and compared with that of the same type of cells grown on control glass surfaces. Only confluent cell layers were tested. Cells grown on control glass surfaces adhered with a mean relative adhesion strength of 488 ± 28 dynes/cm². Under identical conditions, cells grown on laminin‐ and FAP‐tethered hydrogel surfaces were unable to be removed, indicating an adhesion strength greater than 516 dynes/cm². Cells grown on fibronectin‐ and fibronectin/laminin (1:1)‐tethered surfaces showed significantly lower relative adhesion strengths (201 ± 50 and 189 ± 11 dynes/cm², respectively), compared with laminin‐ and FAP‐tethered surfaces (p = 0.001). Our results demonstrate that the microjet impingement method of cell adhesion analysis is applicable to hydrogel substrates. Additionally, analysis of our test surfaces indicates that fibronectin tethered to this hydrogel in the quantity and by the method used here does not induce stable ligand/receptor bonding to the epithelial cell membrane to the same degree as does laminin or FAP. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 72A: 19–24, 2005