Abstract
In this study we investigate the formation of protein-resistant polymer surfaces, such as aliphatic polyesters, through the deposition of self-assemblies of amphiphilic poly(l-lactide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide), PLLA-b-PEO, copolymers as stable nanoparticles with a kinetically frozen PLLA core on model PLLA surfaces. The length of the PEO chains in the corona was tuned to achieve polymer brushes capable of preventing protein adsorption on PLA-based biomaterials. The spectroscopic ellipsometry, IR and XPS analysis, contact angle goniometry, and AFM proved that the PEO chains adopted a brush structure and were preferably exposed on the surface. The low-fouling properties of the physisorbed PLLA-b-PEO layers approached the ones of reactive grafting methods, as shown by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. The anti-fouling properties of the prepared PEO brushes provided sufficient interface to prevent cell adhesion as proved in vitro. Thus, the developed surface coating with PLLA-b-PEO colloids can provide an anti-fouling background for the creation of nanopatterned biofunctionalized surfaces in biomedical applications.
Highlights
Non-fouling surfaces have been under frequent investigation for biomedical applications such as biosensing or tissue engineering.[1]
We have investigated the efficiency of the PLLA-b-poly(ethylene oxide) block (PEO) coatings in preventing the adsorption of single plasma proteins and proteins from cell cultivation media, and the resistance of the coatings to cell adhesion according to Fig. 1B
The A–B diblock copolymers composed of the semi-crystalline polylactide block (PLLA) with a matching block length and the semi-crystalline methoxy-poly(ethylene oxide) block (PEO) with a block length of 5, 10, and 15 kDa were synthesized by a ring-opening polymerization and characterized by 1H NRM spectroscopy and Size exclusion chromatography (SEC)
Summary
Non-fouling surfaces have been under frequent investigation for biomedical applications such as biosensing or tissue engineering.[1]. Modification with hydrophilic polymers was reported as an efficient method for surface passivation due to the effect of steric repulsion.[4] For that purpose, besides other polymers, such as polybetaine-based polymers[1] or poly(vinyl alcohol),[5] poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, has been extensively studied and proved to be effective.[6,7] In general, the efficiency of the surface coating in preventing protein adsorption is attributed to the arrangement of the hydrophilic polymer chains into a brush conformation. The description of the theoretical model of polymer brushes and their mechanism and efficiency in suppressing the adsorption of proteins was reported by Szleifer[8,9] and Halperin,[10,11] and the important parameters of a polymer brush, such as chain distance, chain density, and the thickness of a polymer brush, have been established
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