Molecular biocompatibility evaluation of poly(d,l-lactic acid)-modified biomaterials based on long serial analysis of gene expression

In this work, long serial analysis of gene expression (LongSAGE) technology was used to investigate the molecular mechanism of the interaction between cells and poly(d,l-lactic acid)-modified biomaterials. After mouse osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured on poly(d,l-lactic acid) (PDLLA) and a novel maleic anhydride-modified poly(d,l-lactic acid) (MPLA) films, the morphology, proliferation activity and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of MC3T3-E1 cells were assessed by laser confocal microscope, cell counting assay and ALP assay, and the gene expression profiles of the cells were detected and compared at the transcript levels, respectively. 202 tags were found differentially expressed (p < 0.05, and fold change >2) between PDLLA and MPLA LongSAGE libraries. Gene ontology functional analysis of the differentially expressed genes indicates that surface modification of MPLA biomaterial has an extensive influence on cells by regulating expression of genes related to cell proliferation, cell cycle, cytoskeleton organization, ossification, bone remodeling, metabolism, and eventually induces osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. The approach presented here provides a new insight in the molecular biocompatibility evaluation of biomaterials, contributing to the development of biomaterials in tissue engineering field.