Abstract
Carbodiimide stabilised collagen is employed extensively for the fabrication of biologically active materials. Despite this common usage, the effect of carbodiimide crosslinking on cell-collagen interactions is unclear. Here we have found that carbodiimide crosslinking of collagen inhibits native-like, whilst increasing non-native like, cellular interactions. We propose a mechanistic model in which carbodiimide modifies the carboxylic acid groups on collagen that are essential for cell binding. As such we feel that this research provides a crucial, long awaited, insight into the bioactivity of carbodiimide crosslinked collagen. Through the ubiquitous use of collagen as a cellular substrate we feel that this is fundamental to a wide range of research activity with high impact across a broad range of disciplines.
Highlights
Cellular analysis was used to test if EDC crosslinking could modify integrin-mediated cell attachment to collagen-based biomaterials
When added to collagen films crosslinked with increasing concentrations of EDC/NHS, the level of platelet adhesion was not perturbed with low doses of EDC/NHS, increased levels of EDC/NHS crosslinking blocked platelet interactions in the presence of Mg2+ (Fig. 1)
Physiologically-relevant cellular interactions are critical for biomaterial function as tissue engineering substrates
Summary
The goal of this study was to explore the mechanism for this carbodiimide modulation of cell adhesion and to determine its influence on the cellular response
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