Rodney Marcelo do Nascimento
PhD en Science et Technologie des Matériaux,
Post Doctorant à l’Université de Lorraine (équipe de Biomatériaux du LEM3), UMR CNRS 7239 et Université de São Paulo USP (São Carlos Institute of Physics), 1356-6590, Brésil.
Actuellement, Professeur invité à l’Université Fédérale de Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brésil.
“Biomaterial-Cell membrane Interactions: Experimental and Biophysical Modeling Approach”
Despite several decades of research on biomedical implant materials, the identification of predictive and robust in vitro characteristics of cell support ability and viabilities—as indicators of biocompatibility and future implant-tissue integration—remain elusive. This study addresses the phenomenology of cell–implant interfaces based on experimental, theoretical, and numerical analysis of cell response to functionalized biomaterials. A variable spectrum of biomaterials having differing surface wettabilities, with optimized solid tension values, was obtained. Measured values were modeled and correlated to cell supportability, membrane changes and viabilities. The contributions of different surface aspects to cell viability are decoupled, resulting in the identification of the polar component of the surface free energy as a significant and major cell membrane–substrate effector. Furthermore, results of this study and the suggested model establish the thermodynamic interfacial free energy as an omnipotent measure that can be fully correlated to the morphology of an individual cell under numerical simulation matching empirical observations. Collectively, the physicochemical model reported herein can offer a new generic theoretical framework, using implementable mathematical simulation, toward the objective of rational biomaterial design that can improve next-generation implants.