Effect of Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Oxide Aerogel on the Biological Characteristics of Acute Leukemia Cell Lines

Abstract

To investigate the effects of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) + graphene oxide (GO, weight content 1 wt%) aerogel three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds culture system on the proliferation, phenotype and drug resistance of ALL cell line Jurkat and AML cell line HL-60. Jurkat cells and HL-60 cells were seeded in PVA+GO aerogel scaffolds for culture, and the structure of cells were observed by the scanning electron microscopy. Cell proliferation activity was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), cell phenotypes were analyzed by flow cytometry after fluorescent staining, then were compared with 2D cultured cells. Ara-C was used in drug resistance experiment, and CCK8 was used to detected cell proliferation activity. The proliferation activity of Jurkat cells grown in aerogel scaffolds was higher than that by 2D cultured in long-term culture. However, in HL-60 cells, the proliferation activity on 3D scaffold only at the 8th to 20th day was higher than that on the traditional 2D culture. Expression of CD4 in Jurkat cells increased after culture for 30 days, but the cell phenotypes in the 3D aerogel scaffolds were similar to 2D cultured cells. Phenotype of HL-60 cells was certainly changed after culture for 30 days, the cells can be divided into CD13+CD14-CD45+HLA-DR+,CD13-CD14--CD45+HLA-DR+ and CD13-CD14-CD45+HLA-DR- groups, and a new CD13+CD14-CD45-HLA-DR+ group of cells appeared in the cells cultured in 3D scaffolds, but not in 2D cultured cells. Drug resistance experiments showed that Jurkat cells in aerogel scaffolds have stronger drug resistance than those in 2D culture. PVA+GO (1 wt%) aerogel scaffolds can improve the proliferation and drug resistance of leukemia cells, and the phenotypes were the same as those in 2D culture, which can be used for cell amplification and biology characteristics studies and drug experiments. However, cell phenotypes should be analyzed before culture, and the effects of phenotypes changes on drug resistance should be eliminated.