Adhesion and function of rat liver cells adherent to silk fibroin/collagen blend films.

Collagen is often used in bioartificial livers as a biomimetic coating to promote liver cell adhesion and differentiation. Animal proteins are expensive and expose the host to risks of cross-species infection due to contamination with prions. Silk fibroin (SF) is a biocompatible protein produced by Bombyx mori silk worms and possibly an alternative to collagen. We prepared SF-collagen blend films with different SF content adherent to the bottom of standard tissue culture dishes, and characterized their surface morphology by SEM, their wettability and examined them for their capacity to support rat liver cell adhesion and metabolism. Cell metabolism was characterized by estimating the rate at which cells eliminated ammonia and synthesized urea for up to 48h of culture. SF-containing films were smooth, clear and more wettable than collagen. Cells readily adhered, formed junctions and small size aggregates on all films. As many cells adhered on SF as on collagen films. Cell adhesion to high collagen content blend films could not be reliably estimated because cells dwelt in the large cavities in the film. The effect of SF on cell metabolism differed with the investigated metabolic pathway. However, cells on SF-containing films eliminated ammonia and synthesized urea at rates generally comparable to, for urea synthesis at times higher than, that of cells on collagen. These results suggest that silk fibroin is a suitable substratum for liver cell attachment and culture, and a potential alternative to collagen as a biomimetic coating.