Effect of polyester prosthesis micro-texture on endothelial cell adhesion and profileration

Small-diameter Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) textile prostheses display poor patency rates. Among the many factors which may explain this, the absence of neoendothelium formation on the inner surface of the graft is one cause of failure. This neoendothelialization may depend on the material's structure, which clearly influences endothelial cells development. Thus far, little is known regarding the effect of textile structure on cell development. To determine the influence of a material's chemistry and micro-structure on cell adhesion and proliferation, this study compared the behaviour of bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) on a flat PET film and those on non-coated textile structures of knitted and woven commercial prostheses with and without velour. One-hour cell adherence tests were performed followed by cell proliferation tests at 2, 3, 5, 9, and 15 days under static conditions. Results show a significant structural difference (p <.001) between the PET film and the PET textile when BAEC adherence was promoted on the textile structures. No differences were measured between the four types of textile. Proliferation tests showed differences between each sample, with better proliferation on the velour knit samples. Immunofluorescence micrographs confirmed that the textile structures enabled the isolation of individual BAECs because of their high specific surface. Although appearing as promising adherence promoters, the textiles were incompatible with monolayer BAEC proliferation. In light of this finding, prosthetic surface morphology resulting from textile structure must be modified to support monolayer cell proliferation.