Cell Adhesion to Plasma-Coated PVC

To produce environments suitable for cell culture, thin polymer films were deposited onto commercial PVC plates from radiofrequency acetylene-argon plasmas. The proportion of argon in the plasmas, P(Ar), was varied from 5.3 to 65.8%. The adhesion and growth of Vero cells on the coated surfaces were examined for different incubation times. Cytotoxicity tests were performed using spectroscopic methods. Carbon, O, and N were detected in all the samples using XPS. Roughness remained almost unchanged in the samples prepared with 5.3 and 28.9% but tended to increase for the films deposited with P(Ar) between 28.9 and 55.3%. Surface free energy increased with increasing P(Ar), except for the sample prepared at 28.9% of Ar, which presented the least reactive surface. Cells proliferated on all the samples, including the bare PVC. Independently of the deposition condition there was no evidence of cytotoxicity, indicating the viability of such coatings for designing biocompatible devices.