Despite the widely explored
biomaterial scaffolds in vascular tissue engineering applications lately, no ideal platform has been provided for small diameter synthetic vascular grafts mainly due to the
thrombosis issue. Endothelium is the only known completely non-thrombogenic material; so, functional endothelialization onto vascular
biomaterials is critical in maintaining the patency of vascular networks. Bacterial
cellulose (BC) is a natural
biomaterial with superior biocompatibility and appropriate hydrophilicity as potential vascular grafts. In previous studies, surface modification of active
peptides such as
Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequences onto
biomaterials has been proven to achieve accelerated and selective endothelial cell (EC) adhesion. In our study, we demonstrated a new strategy to remotely regulate the adhesion of endothelial cells based on an oscillating magnetic field and achieve successful endothelialization on the modified BC membranes. In details, we synthesized bacterial
cellulose (BC), magnetic BC (MBC), and
RGD peptide-grafted magnetic BC (RMBC), modified with the HOOC-PEG-COOH-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (PEG-
IONs). The endothelial cells were cultured on the three materials under different frequencies of an oscillating magnetic field, including "stationary" (0 Hz), "slow" (0.1 Hz), and "fast" (2 Hz) groups. Compared to BC and MBC membranes, the cells on RMBC membranes generally show better adhesion and proliferation. Meanwhile, the "slow" frequency of a magnetic field promotes this phenomenon on RMBC and achieves endothelialization after culture for 4 days, whereas "fast" inhibits the cellular attachment. Overall, we demonstrate a non-invasive and convenient method to regulate the endothelialization process, with promising applications in vascular tissue engineering.