Surface charge mediated cell-surface interaction on piezoelectric materials

Cell-material interactions play an essential role in the development of scaffold-based tissue engineering strategies. Cell therapies are still limited in treating injuries when severe damage causes irreversible loss of muscle cells. Electroactive biomaterials and, in particular, piezoelectric materials offer new opportunities for skeletal muscle tissue engineering, since these materials have demonstrated suitable electroactive microenvironments for tissue development. In this study, the influence of the surface charge of piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) on cell adhesion was investigated. The cytoskeletal organization of C2C12 myoblast cells grown on different PVDF samples was studied by immunofluorescence staining and the interactions between single live cells and PVDF were analyzed using an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) technique termed Single Cell Force Spectroscopy (SCFS). It was demonstrated that C2C12 myoblast cells seeded on samples with net surface charge present a more elongated morp...