Co-culture of endothelial cells and patterned smooth muscle cells on titanium: Construction with high density of endothelial cells and low density of smooth muscle cells

A novel co-culture model of high density vascular endothelial cells and low density micro-patterned smooth muscle cells has been built on the titanium surface for the purpose of enhancing the anti-coagulation, anti-atherosclerosis, anti-inflammation and anti-shedding function of the attached endothelial cells. [Display omitted] •A novel co-culture model of endothelial cells and patterned smooth muscle cells is built on Ti.•The co-cultured endothelial cells (ECs) can completely cover the smooth muscle cells below.•The co-cultured ECs release more NO, PGI2, TM and TFPI compared to the ECs alone.•There are more ECs retained in the co-culture model compared to the ECs alone after BFSS.•This novel co-culture model may develop a new generation of cardiovascular implants. Endothelialization has been considered a promising method to improve the biocompatibility of vascular implanted biomaterials. However, little is known about the anti-coagulation, anti-inflammatory, anti-atherosclerosis and anti-shedding property of the attached endothelial cells (ECs) and the relationship with their bio-environment and material-environment, which are both important evaluations to the cardiovascular biomaterials designed for tissue engineering applications and in vivo implantation. In this in vitro study, a novel co-culture model was built, where vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) were cultured on the hyaluronic acid (HA) micro-strip patterned titanium (Ti) surface on a low density to biomimetic the EC pericyte environment. Subsequently, the EC number and its functional factor, including nitric oxide (NO), prostacyclin (PGI2), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), thrombomodulin (TM), and the inflammatory induced factor, endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule-1 (E-selectin) were quantified, respectively. The anti-shedding property was also assessed by the blood flow shear stress (BFSS) acting. The results showed that the novel co-culture model possessed better EC coverage, functional factor release and anti-shedding functions than the control.