Basic study of corn protein, zein, as a biomaterial in tissue engineering, surface morphology and biocompatibility

The zein films, were prepared for culturing human liver cells (HL-7702) and mice fibroblast cells (NIH3T3), while the Corning microplate and polylactic acid (PLA) were chosen as controls. The surface morphology of zein films prepared by two different methods was studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM), which revealed that the zein films were composed of particles of diameter 100–500 and 500–2500 nm, respectively. The biocompatibility of zein films was assessed by attachment, extensibility and proliferation of cells on them. Our study indicated that over 60% of both HL-7702 cells and NIH3T3 cells could attach to the Corning microplate, zein films and PLA at 3 h after seeding. The concentration and particle sizes for preparing zein films did not seem to affect the proliferation of the cells tested. There were no significant differences in the proliferation of both HL-7702 cells and NIH3T3 cells between the Corning microplate and two kinds of zein films, except that the zein film composed of smaller particles at the lowest concentration exhibited a very good ability for proliferation of both the cells, while PLA was a poor matrix in the latter period of the cell proliferation. This preliminary study demonstrates that zein is a promising biomaterial with good biocompatibility for the development of tissue engineering.