Adhesion and proliferation of living cell on surface functionalized with glycine nanostructures

This research presents the application of glycine amino acid for establishing firm cell-substrate interaction instead of expensive adhesion proteins, peptides and peptide derivatives. The glycine amino acid is chemically functionalized on the coverslip to achieve self-assembled nanostructure. Glycine self-assembly on NaCl treated coverslips is initiated with SiONa+:COO− linkage while their nanostructure is achieved with formation of glycine chain through NH3+:COO− covalent linkage between the adjacent molecules. The functionalization steps are confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) investigation. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations reveal that glycine growth initiates at 4 Hours (H) post-treatment while maximum growth appears after 8H-10H. Both the vertical and horizontal growth of nanostructures show dependence on functionalization periods. Various levels of glycine functionalized surface show different levels of baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cell adhesion and proliferation efficiency with maximum performance for 10H functionalized surface. The adhesion and proliferation performance of 10H glycine functionalized surface shows negligible difference when compared with glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) functionalized surface. Finally, growth curves obtained from both glycine and RGD functionalized surface reveal exponential growth phage up to 48H followed by stationary phage between 48H and 72H while death of many cells appears from 72H to 96H. Thus, this research concluded that glycine functionalized surface is equally effective for cell adhesion and proliferation