Abstract:
In the area of surgical applications, understanding the interaction between medical device materials and tissue is important since this interaction may cause complications. The interaction often consists of a cell monolayer touching the medical device that can be mimicked in vitro. Prominent examples of this are contact lenses, where epithelial cells interact with the contact lens, or stents and catheters, which are in contact with endothelial cells. To investigate those interactions, in previous studies, expensive microtribometers were used to avoid pressures in the contact area far beyond physiologically relevant levels. Here, we aim to present a new methodology that is cost- and time-efficient, more accessible than those used previously and allows for the application of more realistic pressures, while permitting a quantification of the damage caused to the monolayer. For this, a soft polydimethylsiloxane is employed that better mimics the mechanical properties of blood vessels than materials used in other studies. Furthermore, a technique to account for misalignments within the experiment set-up is presented. This is carried out using the raw spatial and force data recorded by the tribometer and adjusting for misalignments. The methodology is demonstrated using an endothelial cell (human umbilical vein endothelial cells) monolayer.
摘要:
在外科应用领域,理解医疗器械材料和组织之间的相互作用是很重要的,因为这种相互作用可能会引起并发症。该相互作用通常由接触可以在体外模拟的医疗装置的细胞单层组成。突出的例子是隐形眼镜,上皮细胞与隐形眼镜相互作用,或者支架和导管,与内皮细胞接触。为了调查这些相互作用,在以前的研究中,使用昂贵的微摩擦计来避免接触区域的压力远远超出生理相关水平。这里,我们的目标是提出一种成本和时间高效的新方法,比以前使用的更容易接近,并允许施加更现实的压力,同时允许量化对单层造成的损害。为此,使用软的聚二甲基硅氧烷比其他研究中使用的材料更好地模拟血管的机械性能。此外,提出了一种解决实验设置中失准的技术。这是使用由摩擦计记录的原始空间和力数据并针对未对准进行调整来执行的。使用内皮细胞(人脐静脉内皮细胞)单层证明了该方法。