| Summary: | The ideal vascular or skin substitute is able to simulate the functions of original vascular or skin tissue. To reach this goal, the tissue substitute should be based on a biomaterial scaffold of an appropriate structure and desirable physical and chemical properties. These properties strongly influence successful implantation of the substitute to the patient's organism, substitute durability in the organism, and the desired colonization of the scaffolds with cells. These properties have a great impact on the adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, and desired phenotypic maturation of cells. Most of the biomaterials used for constructing clinically used tissue substitutes do not have appropriate properties for sufficient cell colonization, and thus their surface modification is needed. This thesis focuses on the improvement of biomaterial surface properties for successful cell colonization by plasma treatment, or by grafting and coating biomaterials with bioactive substances and extracellular matrix proteins. The modification of polyethylene (PE) foils by Ar+ plasma discharge showed a positive effect on the spreading, proliferation, and phenotypic maturation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Subsequent grafting of the plasma-activated surface with bioactive substances further influenced cell...
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