Fibronectin-pluronic coadsorption on a polystyrene surface with increasinghydrophobicity: Relationship to cell adhesion

Recently, patterned polystyrene surfaces containing hydrophobic (PS) and mo re hydrophilic (PSox) areas have been shown to be capable of directing cell ular growth, which is mainly due to the competitive adsorption of adhesive and antiadhesive molecules. In this article, the competitive adsorption bet ween a pluronic surfactant and fibronectin was studied on homogeneous PS or PSox:substrates conditioned with mixtures containing increasing concentrat ions of one of the two molecules. Radiolabeling and X-ray photoelectron spe ctroscopy techniques showed that fibronectin adsorption increased on both s urfaces if the fibronectin concentrations increased in the conditioning mix ture. In contrast,fibronectin adsorption decreased on PSox and did not occu r on PS surfaces when pluronic concentrations increased in the coating mixt ure. A comparison of these data with pheochromocytoma and Schwann cells cul tured on patterned surfaces showed that the direction of cell growth on PSo x areas depended first on the relative concentrations of the two components in the mixtures, and second, on their ratio; the best concentration ratio probably depends on the cell's ability to recondition its support. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.