We want to fabricate a cyclic stretcher which is made of steel. We want to culture the cell inside the stretcher, but the steel is rusty and may cause the cell die. The steel is contacted with the cell culture medium. That's why I want to make the steel biocompatible and suitable for cell growth.
I presume that the salt in the buffer contributes to the oxidation process. Try with acid-proof stainless steel with are generally good when Cl-ions are present
First, the typical medical stainless steel is A316L. It has fairly good corrosion resistance, however, as far as I have ever experienced, no mammalian cells prefer to adhere to the walls of any metals. Osteoblasts will adhere to the titania layer (TiOx) for those (Ti base) alloys. It is my opinion that there is too much chromium orthophospate (toxic) formed on the surface of passivated A316L to support cell adhesion.
To make an alloy compatible, I would suggest CVD/PVD coatings of TiOx or a polymer coating such as polystyrene.
In your case, given there is already corrosion, you will either need to grind the entire surface to remove all pitting and then refinish or it may be better to start over with fresh alloy.
according to standards in medical devices, you just allowed to use AISI 316L among ferrous alloys. in another hand if I understand well, you want to culture your cells inside the stretcher in DMEM medium culture or something else. in hence, one of the most weakness of 316L is susceptibility of corrosion in chloride environment. as you know, the medium cell cultures are full of chloride ions. in one of my researches I've studied the behavior of two different biocompatible metals like 316 and Ti6Al4V by culturing Stem cells on the surface of corroded samples after potentiodynamic examination. we found that the corrosion products of 316 is toxic for growth of stem cells and titanium was very stable under this condition. please read my these two attached article to figure it out more.
good luck
Conference Paper Bio-Corrosion Study of Ti6Al4V and S.S 316L Medical Grade Al...
Article Study of Biocompatibility and Survival of WJ-stem Cells on C...
I would do a little search for availability of stainless steel 304.
From your description its not clear what you plan to put the actual cells into, but I assume they will not be in direct contact with the steel?
Have you considered making (at least some of the parts) of your stretcher out of aluminum? You may need to make the parts thicker since aluminum is not as stiff, but it stands up to corrosion reasonably well and is relatively cheap and easy to machine.
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