Abstract
We investigated the use of heparinized cellulose matrices (H-CM) as affinity substrates for binding of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), a heparin-binding peptide, to facilitate cellular proliferation and substrate-mediated transgene delivery. Using human HT-1080 fibroblasts and Saos-2 osteoblasts as cellular models, we showed that H-CM was a friendly substrate for cellular adhesion. Once adhered, cells received stimulation from the bound bFGF, leading to enhanced proliferation. Furthermore, taking advantage of the negative zeta potential of H-CM, we applied electrostatic adsorption to immobilize cationic poly-ethylenimine/DNA polyplexes onto the surface for transgene delivery upon cellular adhesion. Because bFGF stimulated cellular proliferation, we observed a significant increase in transfection efficiency in comparison to transfection on H-CM without the bFGF binding. We showed that H-CM was capable of mediating both bFGF peptide and bFGF transgene delivery to induce a synergistic stimulation of cellular proliferation, thus offering a useful device for fabrication of tissue scaffolds. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.