https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2011110169
Biocompatibility of oxygen-plasma-treated polystyrene substrates
1
Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2
Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenička 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
a e-mail: alenka.vesel@ijs.si
Received:
15
April
2011
Revised:
12
July
2011
Accepted:
26
August
2011
Published online:
28
October
2011
The biocompatibility of polystyrene (PS) samples has been improved by treatment with weakly ionized highly non-equilibrium oxygen plasma. Samples were exposed to plasma for 30 s for which they have received a dose of ions of 4.5 × 1017 m−2 and a neutral oxygen atom dose of 3 × 10−23 m−2. Both untreated and plasma-treated samples were tested for biocompatibility according to the same procedure. Proliferation of human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) on samples revealed a dramatically improved biocompatibility of polystyrene treated by oxygen plasma. The HMECs were deposited on all samples and incubated for 1, 2 and 6 days. MTT test revealed about two times higher activity of cell enzymes after 48 h incubation. The activity for plasma-treated samples remained much higher than for untreated samples even after 6 days of incubation when the samples were already covered with a dense film of HMECs.
© EDP Sciences, 2011
