Effect of plasma treatment on osteoblastic adhesion over poly (ε-caprolactone) scaffolds

Tissue engineering of bone is increasingly becoming the treatment of choice among surgeons to eliminate graft rejection, donor site morbidity and disease transmission problems. The ability of bone cells to produce an osteoid matrix on the scaffold can be affected by the quality of the cell-scaffold interaction. In this paper we report the use of dielectric barrier discharge plasma to improve adhesion and proliferation of bone cells, in particular osteoblast on poly (E-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds. The surface treatment was carried out on PCL scaffolds with a custom made oxygen-based dielectric barrier discharge system (DBD). The effects of plasma treatment on PCL surface were characterized by assessing surface energy, surface topography, and surface chemistry. The surface energy of modified and unmodified PCL scaffolds was calculated by Owens-Wendt's model using contact angle measurement data on these samples. The surface topography and the surface chemistry were evaluated by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier-Transformed Infrared (ATR-FTIR) Spectroscopy. The cell-substrate interaction study was carried out using mouse osteoblastic cell line 7F2 to examine the effect of oxygen plasma. Our results suggested that the oxygen plasma treatment not only enhances the hydrophilicity and increase solid surface energy of PCL but also improves the initial attachment, proliferation and migration of osteoblast on the PCL substrate.