5 36.5 27.3 22.6 Annealed 33.5 26.3 25.0 27.4 Cell adhesion and proliferation The adhesion and proliferation of VSMCs from the rat aorta were studied in vitro on the as-sputtered and annealed samples, both relaxed for 14 days. Cell adhesion is the first stage of cell-material interaction and occurs during BTK inhibitor mw the first 24 h from cell seeding. This process leads to the anchoring of the cells through specific binding interactions for a particular surface. Adhesion stage is controlled by the current state of the substrate surface. The second phase of the cell interaction is so called lag phase. It is the time required for cells to adapt to the new environment, and it takes approximately

24 to 48 h. After overcoming this stage, the cells can start to growth, spread, and proliferate. The degree of cell adhesion was determined as the number of cells found on the sample surface after 24 h from seeding. The dependence of the adhered VSMCs on the Ag sputtering time is shown in Figure 4A,B for relaxed and annealed samples. For comparison, the result for pristine PTFE (sputtering time 0 s) is also shown. From Figure 4A (as sputtered and relaxed samples) it is obvious that

the presence of Ag coating has a positive effect on cell adhesion. The number of VSMCs found on the Ag-coated samples was comparable (3,150 ± 480 cells cm−2) for different sputtering times, whereas the adhesion on pristine PTFE ARRY-438162 order was found to be very low (490 ± 280 cells cm−2). This result is p38 MAPK inhibitor rather unexpected since it is known that in general, the presence of nanosized Ag on tissue carriers has a negative effect on cell growth. In the case of the annealed samples (see Figure 4B), the situation is rather different.

The highest increase of the adhered cells (2,830 cells cm−2) was observed on the sample sputtered for 20 s, while the cell adhesion on pristine PTFE and the samples Ag sputtered for longer deposition L-gulonolactone oxidase times (100 and 200 s) was minimal (Figure 4B). It is probably due to both lower wettability (caused by desorption of oxygen-rich compounds during annealing) and higher roughness of the samples. Figure 4 The number of VSMC dependence on silver sputtering time. The dependence of number of VSMCs on silver sputtering time for as-sputtered (A) and annealed (B) samples for different cultivation periods (first, second, fifth, and seventh days). Proliferation was determined as the number of VSMCs found on the samples after 2, 5, and 7 days from seeding (see Figure 4). The most significant changes were observed after the seventh day of cultivation. On the samples deposited for 20 s, a high cell number was found (72,650 ± 24,700 cells cm−2 for as-deposited and 29,300 ± 19,500 cells cm−2 for annealed samples). Higher proliferation on these samples occurred, owing to the formation of discontinuous metal layer and the favorable combination of the two factors, surface roughness and wettability.