Introduction: Hyperplasia of nearby tissue with an inward movements is an important pathogenesis for artificial tracheal complication problems like restenosis. That is because the airway mucus cannot be cleared away by the smooth inner wall of artificial tracheal without the cilium. Here, we proposed a new way to line a polymer brush layer on the artificial tracheal inner wall to mimic the bronchial epithelial cilium.
Method: We synthesized a polymer brush (p(nBA-DEAEMA)) to mimic bronchial epithelial cilium. Bronchial epithelial cells(BECs) from the SD rat were cultured to form the cilium. Proliferation, migration abilities and stiffness of BECs was assessed after incubated with the polymer extract liquid. Adherence test was carried out to assess polymer film’s repellence to the BECs. The rheological behaviors of the cell layer with cilium and the polymer film’s aspergilliform surface was measured by rheometer.
Results: The proliferation and migration abilities of the BECs were decreased while stiffness of the BECs was increased when incubated with the polymer extract liquid which less than 20 days, however the longer extract liquid were exhibited no cytotoxicity. Meanwhile, BECs couldn’t adhere to the polymer film. On the other hand, the aspergilliform surface showed a similar rheological behavior with the BECs cilium.
Conclusion: These results indicated that the polymer film can partly mimic the Physiological and rheological behavior of BECs, and exhibited high cell adhesion repellence and low cytotoxicity. It has an applied potential in the field of the modification for the artificial airway inner wall.