Abstract: Due to its high specific surface area which can greatly improve the efficiency of cell culture, the microcarrier is widely used in the fields of biopharmaceutical and tissue engineering. However, the cost is too high because most of the microcarriers are disposable and imported. This situation has limited the application of microcarrier in domestic. The polyetheretherketone (PEEK) as a desired material for preparing microcarriers has many properties such as good biocompatibility, chemical stability and high temperature resistance. But it is hard to process PEEK into microcarrier. In this paper, in order to prepare the microcarrier through airflow assisted infusion/phase separation method, the PEEK powder was dissolved in concentrated sulfuric acid, followed by dripping into H₂O/ethanol solution. The diameter of the uniform microcarriers is near 448 μm. Furthermore, the amination reaction on microcarriers surface was governed by treated with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). Then, the gelatin was grafted in different amounts on microcarriers using N,N'-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) as reactive intermediate. At last, the cytotoxicity of microcarrier, the proliferation and adhesion of cell on microcarriers were evaluated. The results indicate that the high-gelatin-grafted microcarrier (PEEK-G3) is promised in enhancing cell proliferation and adhesion.

Key words: Microcarrier, Polyetheretherketone, Gelatin modification, MC3T3-E1, Cell proliferation and adhesion