EFFECT OF THE POLYACRYLAMIDE FERROGEL ELASTICITY ON THE CELL ADHESIVENESS TO MAGNETIC COMPOSITE

Abstract

Biocompatible polyacrylamide gels are widely required for the development of mechanically “soft” magnetic material for the purposes of different biomedical applications. In this work, ferrogels were synthesized by radical polymerization of acrylamide in a stable aqueous suspension of magnetic maghemite [Formula: see text]-Fe[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] nanoparticles (MNPs) with the median value in diameter of 11.4[Formula: see text]nm fabricated by laser target evaporation. Gel network density was set to 1:100, the concentrations of embedded MNPs were fixed at 0.00%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% or 1.0% by weight. Ferrogels’ Young’s modulus and affinity to the human dermal fibroblasts adhesiveness were tested. To estimate the cells adhesive activity to gels, the adhesion index was calculated as the number of adhered cells divided by the number of cells sown and multiplied by 100%. The gradual increase of MNPs concentration in the gel network resulted in the significant increase of ferrogel’s Young’s modulus and cells adhesion activity. In particular, at the MNPs concentration of 0.25%, the modulus and the adhesion index were equal to [Formula: see text]30[Formula: see text]kPa and [Formula: see text]90%, correspondingly. The adhesion index at highest MNPs concentration of 1.0% was close to 100% and modulus to [Formula: see text]40[Formula: see text]kPa. The increase of cells adhesiveness rise with MNPs concentration closely correlated with the direct impact of MNPs on the gel stiffness.