Albumin adsorption on unmodified and sulfonated polystyrene surfaces, in relation to cell–substratum adhesion

Albumin is commonly applied for blocking the adsorption of other proteins and to prevent the nonspecific adhesion of cells to diverse artificial substrata. Here we address the question of how effective these albumin properties are – by investigating unmodified and sulfonated polystyrene substrata with distinctly different wettabilities. As clearly shown with 125I-radioisotopic assays, above a concentration of 10–20 μg/mL, the efficiency of bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption became markedly higher on the sulfonated surface than on the unmodified one. This study was assisted with the atomic force microscopy. On the unmodified surface, BSA, adsorbed from sufficiently concentrated solutions, formed a monolayer, with occasional intrusions of multilayered patches. Conversely, the arrangement of BSA on the sulfonated surface was chaotic; the height of individual molecules was lower than on the unmodified polystyrene. Importantly, the adhesion study of LNCaP and DU145 cells indicated that both surfaces, subjected to the prior BSA adsorption, did not completely loose their cell-adhesive properties. However, the level of adhesion and the pattern of F-actin organization in adhering cells have shown that cells interacted with unmodified and sulfonated surfaces differently, depending on the arrangement of adsorbed albumin. These results suggest the presence of some bare substratum area accessible for cells after the albumin adsorption to both types of investigated surfaces.

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► Adsorption of albumin to hydrophobic polystyrene at low solute concentrations is efficient; it leads mostly to the creation of monolayer, and to the saturation at cBSA ≈ 20 μg/mL.
► Adsorption of albumin to hydrophilic polystyrene becomes, at cBSA in excess of ca. 15 μg/mL, more efficient than that to the hydrophobic substrate; the protein layer is thick and chaotically arranged.
► Both studied types of surfaces, subjected to the prior BSA adsorption, did not completely loose their adhesive properties towards LNCaP and DU145 cells.