The effect of nanofibre surface amine density and conjugate structure on the adhesion and proliferation of human haematopoietic progenitor cells

Previous studies have shown that substrate surface chemistry and topography exhibit significant impact on haematopoietic progenitor cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. In the present study, the effect of surface amine density and structure of grafted polymer chains on the adhesion and expansion of haematopoietic progenitor cells was investigated. Cryopreserved human umbilical cord blood CD133+ cells were expanded in cytokine-supplemented medium on ethylenediamine (EDA)- or 2-aminoethyl methacrylate hydrochloride (AEMA)-grafted polyethersulphone (PES) nanofibre scaffolds for 10 days. Although the percentage of CD34+ cells among the expanded cells increased with the surface amine density, the maximum fold expansion of CD34+ cells was obtained at a moderate amine density of 20–80 nmol cm−2. When comparing nanofibre matrices with similar amine densities, but prepared with two different methods, cells cultured on the AEMA-grafted PES nanofibre matrix showed lower fold expansion in terms of total cell number (300 ± 84 fold) and CD34+ cell number (68 ± 19-fold) in comparison with those cultured on EDA-grafted nanofibres (787 ± 84-fold and 185 ± 84-fold, respectively). These results indicate that the surface amine density and the conjugate structure are important determinants for the preservation of CD34 surface marker and expansion efficiency of CD34+ cells.