I.O. DOAGĂ, T. SAVOPOL, A. NEAGU*, EUGENIA KOVÁCS

Biophysics Research Dept., “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics, Bucharest
*Biophysics & Medical Informatics Dept., “Victor Babeş” University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics, Timişoara

Abstract. Cell adhesion process on solid biomatrices is demonstrated to influence dramatically the in vitro morphogenesis of artificial tissues, because it involves all the key factors of early tissue formation: cells, matrix and the physiological interactions between them. To evaluate the efficiency of this process, many authors proposed static parameters like final cell density, cell distribution, and final cell viability in different seeding techniques, i.e. static, circular flow or direct perfusion seeding. We studied the cell adhesion dynamics using a homemade optical density-meter under various experimental conditions. A modified fluorimetric cuvette was used where solid collagen type I matrices are exposed directly to the 3T3 murine cells under continuous agitation with a magnetic stirrer. The optical density data are digitally recorded by an optoelectronic device (Texas Instruments). Through computer processing, the variation of the cell suspension’s concentration during the entire process can be observed, results being expressed either in optical density decrease per minute, or in number of cells seeded per minute. The experimental seeding curves were analyzed in terms of a sequential 2-phase kinetics model. Results showed a good correlation between prediction and experimental curves.
Key words: cell seeding, adhesion, collagen biomatrices.

Corresponding author’s e-mail: iodoaga@univermed-cdgm.ro

Full text: PDF