Aminosilane Layer Formation Inside the PDMS Tubes Improves Wettability and Cytocompatibility of Human Endothelial Cells

Several methods have been developed to improve hydrophilicity of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based materials for various biomedical applications. However, many of these methods suffer from fast hydrophobic recovery and incompatibility with complex features. This study demonstrates a simple and convenient procedure to modify only the interior surface of small-diameter PDMS tubes by using (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTES)-chloroform solution at room temperature. Multi-aminosliane layers were covalently attached inside the PDMS tubes as proven by fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in the attenuated total reflectance mode (ATR-FTIR), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The static water contact angle measurement suggests that the hydrophilicity of interior surface of PDMS tube improved. Cell culture experiments with human umbilical vein endothelial cells demonstrated that the APTES-treated PDMS tubes support cell viability, proliferation and attachments. Our data shows that the formation of amino groups inside the PDMS tubes improves wettability and cytocompatibility of human endothelial cells, suggesting that these tubes are representative materials for designing engineered vascular tissue.