Effect of Poly(3-octylthiophene) Doping on the Attachment and Proliferation of Osteoblasts

The effect of doping P3OT with ferric chloride on the attachment and proliferation of MC3T3‐E1 osteoblasts is reported. Cell density and area correlated strongly with doping concentration: cells were larger and exhibited better spreading as doping increased. Cells cultured on undoped P3OT showed a decrease in proliferation between 24 and 48 h followed by a recovery after 72 h. However, this trend diminished with increasing doping concentration, and disappeared completely at the highest dopant level investigated. Analysis of cell‐cell spatial distributions suggested that contact inhibition of proliferation occurred similarly on both undoped and doped P3OT. From these results, FeCl3‐doping had no significant deleterious effect on attachment or proliferation of osteoblasts in vitro. It is demonstrated that FeCl3 doping of P3OT has a profound effect on MC3T3‐E1 cell attachment and proliferation, leading to an increase in cell density and area after 4h and a decrease in proliferation after 24 and 72h, relative to undoped P3OT. A local metric approach is used to study cell contact effects on proliferation. The results suggest that the cells' ability to sense the presence of other cells in the local environment changes upon substrate doping.