TY - JOUR
T1 - Hollow fiber membranes of PCL and PCL/graphene as scaffolds with potential to develop in vitro blood– brain barrier models
AU - Mantecón-Oria, Marián
AU - Diban, Nazely
AU - Berciano, Maria T.
AU - Rivero, Maria J.
AU - David, Oana
AU - Lafarga, Miguel
AU - Tapia, Olga
AU - Urtiaga, Ane
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - There is a huge interest in developing novel hollow fiber (HF) membranes able to modulate neural differentiation to produce in vitro blood–brain barrier (BBB) models for biomedical and pharmaceutical research, due to the low cell-inductive properties of the polymer HFs used in current BBB models. In this work, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and composite PCL/graphene (PCL/G) HF membranes were prepared by phase inversion and were characterized in terms of mechanical, electrical, morphological, chemical, and mass transport properties. The presence of graphene in PCL/G membranes enlarged the pore size and the water flux and presented significantly higher electrical conductivity than PCL HFs. A biocompatibility assay showed that PCL/G HFs significantly increased C6 cells adhesion and differentiation towards astrocytes, which may be attributed to their higher electrical conductivity in comparison to PCL HFs. On the other hand, PCL/G membranes produced a cytotoxic effect on the endothelial cell line HUVEC presumably related with a higher production of intracellular reactive oxygen species induced by the nanomaterial in this particular cell line. These results prove the potential of PCL HF membranes to grow endothelial cells and PCL/G HF membranes to differentiate astrocytes, the two characteristic cell types that could develop in vitro BBB models in future 3D co-culture systems.
AB - There is a huge interest in developing novel hollow fiber (HF) membranes able to modulate neural differentiation to produce in vitro blood–brain barrier (BBB) models for biomedical and pharmaceutical research, due to the low cell-inductive properties of the polymer HFs used in current BBB models. In this work, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and composite PCL/graphene (PCL/G) HF membranes were prepared by phase inversion and were characterized in terms of mechanical, electrical, morphological, chemical, and mass transport properties. The presence of graphene in PCL/G membranes enlarged the pore size and the water flux and presented significantly higher electrical conductivity than PCL HFs. A biocompatibility assay showed that PCL/G HFs significantly increased C6 cells adhesion and differentiation towards astrocytes, which may be attributed to their higher electrical conductivity in comparison to PCL HFs. On the other hand, PCL/G membranes produced a cytotoxic effect on the endothelial cell line HUVEC presumably related with a higher production of intracellular reactive oxygen species induced by the nanomaterial in this particular cell line. These results prove the potential of PCL HF membranes to grow endothelial cells and PCL/G HF membranes to differentiate astrocytes, the two characteristic cell types that could develop in vitro BBB models in future 3D co-culture systems.
KW - 3D cell cultures
KW - Graphene
KW - In vitro blood brain barrier (BBB) model
KW - Mixed-matrix hollow fibers
KW - Poly(ε-caprolactone)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088560280&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/membranes10080161
DO - 10.3390/membranes10080161
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85088560280
SN - 2077-0375
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - Membranes
JF - Membranes
IS - 8
M1 - 161
ER -