Figure 7
From: Nanometric self-assembling peptide layers maintain adult hepatocyte phenotype in sandwich cultures
Hepatocyte attachment on a self-assembling peptide covered PTFE porous membrane. SEM images of hepatocyte attachment with RAD16-I incubation on native PTFE (left column, PTFE + RAD16-I) and plasma-grafted PFM RAD16-immobilized PTFE membranes (right column, PTFE/PgPFM/RAD16-I + RAD16-I). Note: SEM image of hepatocyte attachment on native PTFE membrane. Hepatocytes appear to pull off surrounding peptide without the anchorage of immobilized peptides and form clusters. The cells are unable to interact with the rigid substrate beneath the peptide and, thus, do not achieve a flat morphology (see bottom left panel). Instead, hepatocyte attachment on PFM RAD16-I-immobilized PTFE membranes ends in the formation of cytoplasmic projections visibly adhere to the self-assembling fibers.