Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/216085

Title

Polymer coatings that display specific biological signals while preventing nonspecific interactions

Author(s)

Ameringer, Thomas;  Fransen, Peter;  Bean, Penny;  Johnson, Graham;  Pereira, Suzanne;  Evans, Richard A.;  Thissen, Helmut;  Meagher, Laurence

Abstract

Control over cell-material surface interactions is the key to many new and improved biomedical devices. It can only be achieved if interactions that are mediated by nonspecifically adsorbed serum proteins are minimized and if cells instead respond to specific ligand molecules presented on the surface. Here, we present a simple yet effective surface modification method that allows for the covalent coupling and presentation of specific biological signals on coatings which have significantly reduced nonspecific biointerfacial interactions. To achieve this we synthesized bottle brush type copolymers consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate and (meth)acrylates providing activated NHS ester groups as well as different spacer lengths between the NHS groups and the polymer backbone. Copolymers containing different molar ratios of these monomers were grafted to amine functionalized polystyrene cell culture substrates, followed by the covalent immobilization of the cyclic peptides cRGDfK and cRADfK using residual NHS groups. Polymers were characterized by GPC and NMR and surface modification steps were analyzed using XPS. The cellular response was evaluated using HeLa cell attachment experiments. The results showed strong correlations between the effectiveness of the control over biointerfacial interactions and the polymer architecture. They also demonstrate that optimized fully synthetic copolymer coatings, which can be applied to a wide range of substrate materials, provide excellent control over biointerfacial interactions.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part A, Vol. 100A, no. 2 (Feb 2012), pp. 370-379

Publication year

2012

FOR Code(s)

06 Biological Sciences;  09 Engineering

Keyword(s)

Biointerface;  Biological signals;  Biomedical devices;  Cell attachment;  Cell culture substrate;  Cellular response;  Copolymers;  Covalent couplings;  Covalent immobilisation;  Cyclopeptide;  Ethers;  Ethylene;  Functional polymers;  HeLa cell;  Ligand molecules;  Macrogols;  Methacrylic acid derivative;  Molar ratio;  Non-specific interactions;  Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy;  Organic compounds;  PEG;  Peptides;  Plastic coatings;  Polyethylene glycols;  Polymer architecture;  Polymer backbones;  Polymer coating;  Polystyrenes;  RGD;  Serum proteins;  Spacer lengths;  Strong correlation;  Substrates;  Surface coatings;  Surface interactions;  Surface modification methods;  X ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

ISSN

1549-3296

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.33194

Copyright

Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Peer reviewed