Selective adsorption of functional fibronectin through aptamer functionalization: a new concept for tailoring materials bioactivity

Protein adsorption on biomaterials occurs shortly after scaffold insertion and it is of pivotal importance to address cell-material interaction and to achieve therapeutic success in tissue engineering. Therefore, its control may represent a crucial node in the design of implantable devices. In this thesis, aptamers, which are short oligonucleotides able to recognize, bind and retain target proteins with high affinity, have been identified as an innovative cue to address the selective adsorption of fibronectin from plasma at chitosan interface. Selective fibronectin chitosan surfaces were prepared and characterized for the amelioration of fibronectin adsorption both quantitatively and qualitatively. Furthermore, cell response was studied against murine osteoblastic-like MC3T3-E1 cells and against human epithelial-like HeLa cells. The results we obtained supports the use of aptamers as a new viable modification to improve the adsorption of specific proteins at scaffold interface and to promote the response of cells in term of adhesion, spreading, migration and proliferation. To conclude, we believe to be at the eve of a new promising way to tailor scaffold biocompatibility and to design new targeted and customized therapies in tissue engineering.