Spatially Selective Dual Polymer Brush Grafting for Cell Patterning on Biodegradable Micropatterns

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The domain-selective arrangement of biomolecules and cells at the microscale is essential for various biomedical applications. Recently, bio-conjugated polymer brushes have garnered immense attention from the research community. Several patterning techniques developed so far for producing microstructured biointerfaces based on polymer brushes suffer from various limitations, such as being time-consuming, costly, intricate processes created mostly for model inorganic substrates, etc. Herein, we present a simple method for creating micropatterned biofunctional brushes grafted on biodegradable polymer such as PHBV (poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)). Oxygen plasma-assisted surface modification followed by domain-selective SI-ATRP (surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization) was carried out in tandem to create an alternate pattern of poly(ethyleneglycol)methyl ether methacrylate (PPEGMA) and poly(dimethyaminoethyl) acrylate (PDMAEMA) brushes on micropatterned PHBV surfaces. Thick dual brushes were selectively grafted onto their respective regions through a masking/demasking process, reaching approximately 965 ± 40 nm for PPEGMA and 1128 ± 50 nm for PDMAEMA under the optimized grafting conditions. Domain-selective proteins, gold nanoparticles, and aptamers were immobilized on a suitable brush, avoiding the production of micropatterned biointerfaces, which was ultimately explored for cancer (HeLa) cell immobilization, especially in aptamer-deposited regions. The scope of this innovation can be extended to the micropatterning of various biomolecules, including antibodies, bacteria, and DNA. The dual brush-grafted micropatterned biodegradable polymeric surface offers a straightforward way to immobilize biomolecules, which holds immense potential as a cancer diagnostic biosensor for enhanced and regiospecific bindings, while limiting nonspecific adhesion.
Funding Information
  • Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) (17X(3)/ADHOC/20/2022-ITR)

This publication has 64 references indexed in Scilit: