Galactose derivative immobilized glow discharge processed polyethersulfone membranes maintain the liver cell metabolic activity

New strategies aimed to surface modification of polymeric membranes are crucial to optimise cell-biomaterial interactions in vivo and in vitro biohybrid systems. In this paper, we investigated the surface modification of Polyethersulfone (PES) membranes by plasma polymerisation of acrylic acid monomers (PES-pdAA) and by immobilization of galactonic acid through a hydrophilic spacer arm molecule (PES-pdAA-SA-GAL). The modification steps were characterised by high resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The performance of modified and unmodified membranes was evaluated by assessing the expression of liver specific biotransformation functions of pig and human hepatocytes. Human liver cells cultured on PES-pdAA-SA-GAL membranes displayed an enhanced albumin production, urea synthesis and protein secretion for 24 days of culture. The immobilisation of galactose derivative units on the membrane allowed specific interactions with hepatocytes biomimicking the cellular microenvironment and produced an improvement of the long-term maintenance and differentiation of human hepatocytes.