The effect of collagen modifications on cells in a collagen-glycosaminoglycan (Gag) matrix

Abstract

In degenerative intervertebral disc with narrowed disc height, lower swell of the nucleus pulposus has been observed due to the decrease content of glycosaminoglycans (GAG), some water attracting macromolecules. These diffusive GAGs, under acidic condition, can be immobilized by forming co-precipitate with collagen. Furthermore, the amount of immobilized GAGs was shown to be controllable by various collagen modifications, such as amination, deamination and methylation. To study whether these modifications affects cell viability, human messenchymal stem cells were seeded on the resultant collagen-GAG matrices, and cell number was studied over fifteen days. Live and dead cells on the matrices were imaged by staining with calcein AM and ethidium homodimer-1. To study cell response, GAG and collagen content of these matrices were analyzed over fifteen days. Current results showed that cell viability was high on all modified collagen-GAG matrices, which indicated that the modifications did not impair biocompatibility of the collagen-GAG matrix.