The European Physical Journal Applied Physics

Table of Contents - November 2011 - Volume 56, Issue 02 (Topical Issue: 18th International Colloquium on Plasma Processes (CIP 2011))  

Research Article

Biocompatibility of oxygen-plasma-treated polystyrene substrates

A. Vesela1 c1, M. Mozetica1, M. Jaganjaca2, L. Milkovica2, A. Cipaka2 and N. Zarkovica2

Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenička 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

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.

(Received April 15 2011)

(Revised July 12 2011)

(Accepted August 26 2011)

(Online publication October 28 2011)

Correspondence:

c1 e-mail: alenka.vesel@ijs.si