V. Doyle et al., AN INVESTIGATION OF THE GROWTH OF HUMAN DERMAL FIBROBLASTS ON POLY-L-LACTIC ACID IN-VITRO, Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine, 7(6), 1996, pp. 381-385
A tissue engineered implant involving cells seeded on bioresorbable ma
terials is an attractive proposition for the repair of soft tissue bec
ause in the long term the material is resorbed leading to a natural re
pair. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of poly-L-lactic
acid (PLA) on the growth of human dermal fibroblasts in vitro. The res
ults have been compared to other resorbable materials, polyhydroxybuty
rate (PHB), polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyglycolic acid (PGA). Therma
nox (Tmx) and tissue culture plastic (Tcp) were used as positive contr
ols. PLA compared favourably with the other bioresorbable materials, a
s a substrate for fibroblast attachment and proliferation. No evidence
of cytotoxicity was observed for cells cultured in polymer extracts.
Colonies of adhered fibroblasts were observed on PLA which exhibited n
ormal bipolar morphology when viewed using phase contrast microscopy a
nd cryo-SEM. Cellular proliferation was measured by tritiated thymidin
e incorporation with total DNA as a baseline. Concerns associated with
the use of PLA as the bioresorbable material utilized in tissue regen
eration are primarily related to the effect of degradation products on
the cellular component. No effect on the growth of dermal fibroblasts
was observed in the presence of degradation products or lactic acid s
tandards (0-1000 mu g/ml/48 h). This study has demonstrated that human
dermal fibroblasts proliferated and formed a confluent monolayer on P
LA, which may prove to be a suitable scaffold for soft tissue repair s
ystems, providing biomechanical and biodegradation requirements can be
fulfilled.