The structurally effect of surface coated rhamnogalacturonan I on response of the osteoblast-like cell line SaOS-2.

Osseointegration is important when implants are inserted into the bone and can be improved by biochemical surface coating of the implant. In this paper enzymatically modified rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I) from apple and lupin was used for biochemical coating of aminated surfaces and the importance of the quality of RG-I, the nature of the binding, the fine structure of RG-I, and its effect on SaOS-2 cell line cultured on coated surfaces was investigated. SaOS-2 cells are osteoblast-like cells and a well-established in vitro model of bone-matrix forming osteoblasts. Purification by gel filtration could remove small fragments of galacturonic acid (GalA) and binding studies showed that the purity of the RG-I molecules was important for the quality of the coating. The structure of RG-I and osteoblast-like cells' viability were positively correlated so that high content of 1,4-linked galactose (Gal) and a low content of arabinose in the RG-I molecules favored cell viability. These results indicate that coating of implants with RG-I affect osseointegration positively.