Martina Janůšová, Patrik Matušů, Jana Bartošíková, Lucie Janů, Zdeňka Šillerová, David Nečas, Petr Ryšánek, Jiřina Medalová, Lenka Zajíčková

Organic films with amino groups on nanofibrous structure control innate immune response

Applied Materials Today (submitted)

Synthetic polymer nanofibers, such as polycaprolactone (PCL), are widely used as scaffolds in tissue engineering due to their ease of fabrication. However, their surface properties often fail to meet the specific requirements of cell culture. Coating the scaffolds with organic thin films containing amino groups using a plasma-based dry method provides a simple, single-step, and tunable approach to enhance their hydrophilicity. Motivated by the potential application of these films in bioengineering, this study investigates key characteristics influencing the immune response, capturing both the early and late stages of immune activation represented here by neutrophil-like and macrophage-like cell models, respectively. In neutrophils, the strongest undesirable pro-inflammatory activation was triggered by films with high nitrogen content, positive surface charge, and low water stability, as evidenced by elevated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. In contrast, macrophages exhibited a moderate immune response across all films. Moreover, coating PCL nanofibers with a film characterized by low amino group content, negative surface charge, decreased hydrophilicity, and enhanced water stability partially shifted the immune response toward anti-inflammatory. This was reflected in strongly reduced pro-inflammatory gene expression, a slight increase in pro-regenerative gene levels, and an elongated macrophage morphology indicative of a pro-regenerative phenotype. Furthermore, this film also elicited the weakest pro-inflammatory response in neutrophils. This study underscores the importance of immune response investigation in biomaterial design.

You can also contact one of the authors: xpbucht08@vutbr.cz, lucie.janu@ceitec.vutbr.cz, yeti@physics.muni.cz, lenkaz@physics.muni.cz