Cultures and co-cultures of human blood mononuclear cells and endothelial cells for the biocompatibility assessment of surface modified {AISI} 316L austenitic stainless steel

By Stio, Maria; Martinesi, Maria; Treves, Cristina; Borgioli, Francesca
Published in Materials Science and Engineering: C NULL 2016

Abstract

Abstract Samples of {AISI} 316L austenitic stainless steel were subjected either to grinding and polishing procedure, or to grinding and then low temperature glow-discharge nitriding treatment, or to grinding, nitriding and subsequently coating with collagen-I. Nitrided samples, even if only ground, show a higher corrosion resistance in {PBS} solution, in comparison with ground and polished {AISI} 316L. Biocompatibility was evaluated in vitro by incubating the samples with either peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), tested separately or in co-culture. HUVEC-PBMC co-culture and co-incubation of {HUVEC} with {PBMC} culture medium, after the previous incubation of {PBMC} with metallic samples, allowed to determine whether the incubation of {PBMC} with the different samples might affect {HUVEC} behaviour. Many biological parameters were considered: cell proliferation, release of cytokines, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and sICAM-1, gelatinolytic activity of MMPs, and ICAM-1 protein expression. Nitriding treatment, with or without collagen coating of the samples, is able to ameliorate some of the biological parameters taken into account. The obtained results point out that biocompatibility may be successfully tested in vitro, using cultures of normal human cells, as blood and endothelial cells, but more than one cell line should be used, separately or in co-culture, and different parameters should be determined, in particular those correlated with inflammatory phenomena.

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