Accelerated cell sheet recovery by co-grafting of PEG with PIPAAm onto porous cell culture membranes.

Fabrication of functional tissue constructs from designed three-dimensional structures of cells using the layered method of cultured cell sheets could prove to be an attractive approach to tissue engineering. Rapid recovery of cell sheets is considered to be important as a basic technology for practical assembly of tissue-mimicking structures. To accelerate required culture substrate hydrophilic/hydrophobic functional changes according to the hydrated/dehydrated structural changes in response to culture temperature alteration, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm) was grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) onto porous culture membranes by electron beam irradiation. Analyses by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared and electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis revealed that PIPAAm and PEG were successfully grafted to surfaces of porous membranes. PIPAAm-grafted porous membranes (PIPAAm-PM) were compared with porous membranes co-grafted with various amounts of PEG and PIPAAm (PIPAAm(PEG)-PM) for cell sheet detachment experiments. Approximately 35min incubation at 20 degrees C was required to completely detach cell sheets from PIPAAm-PM in a static condition, while only 19min to detach cell sheets from PIPAAm(PEG0.5%)-PM, which is co-grafted with PIPAAm and 0.5wt% of PEG. With porous membranes, water molecules were accessed by the PIPAAm molecules grafted on the surfaces from both underneath and peripheral to the attached cell sheet, resulting in more rapid hydration of grafted PIPAAm molecules and detachment of cell sheet than that for nonporous tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) dish. With PIPAAm(PEG)-PMs, grafted PEG chains should accelerate the diffusion of water molecules to PIPAAm grafts, showing more rapid detachment of cell sheet compare to PIPAAm-PMs.