Fibronectin/polyelectrolyte multilayered assemblies: film formation and cell attachment studies

Biomimetic materials capable of specific interactions with a biological environment represent the current biomaterial paradigm within tissue engineering and drug delivery [1]. Electrostatically driven layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly [2,3] is a simple and robust method for realizing structurally tailored biomaterial coatings, of thickness ca. 10 nanometers, containing biofunctional ligands. We investigate the placement of fibronectin – a matrix protein useful in tissue engineering applications onto multilayered films formed by the alternate deposition of poly-l-lysine (PLL) and dextran sulfonate (DXS).