“Clickable” and Antifouling Block Copolymer Brushes as a Versatile Platform for Peptide‐Specific Cell Attachment

Abstract

To tailor cell–surface interactions, precise and controlled attachment of cell‐adhesive motifs is required, while any background non‐specific cell and protein adhesion has to be blocked effectively. Herein, a versatile and highly reproducible antifouling surface modification based on “clickable” groups and hierarchically structured diblock copolymer brushes for the controlled attachment of cells is reported. The polymer brush architecture combines an antifouling bottom block of poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) poly(HEMA) and an ultrathin azide‐bearing top block, which can participate in well‐established “click” reactions including the highly selective copper‐catalyzed alkyne‐azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction under mild conditions. This straightforward approach allows the rapid conjugation of a cell‐adhesive, alkyne‐bearing cyclic RGD peptide motif, enabling subsequent specific attachment of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, their extensive proliferation and confluent cell sheet formation after 48 h of incubation. The generally applicable strategy presented in this report can be employed for surface functionalization with diverse alkyne‐bearing biological moieties via CuAAC or copper‐free alkyne‐azide cycloaddition protocols, making it a versatile functionalization approach and a promising tool for tissue engineering, biomaterial implant design, and other applications that require surfaces supporting highly specific cell attachment.

Drug Release from Thermo‐Responsive Polymer Brush Coatings to Control Bacterial Colonization and Biofilm Growth on Titanium Implants

“…[44,45] The high-resolution Br3d scan corresponding to Br in C-Br (Figure 2c) comprises two peaks: 3d 5/2 at 69.7 eV and 3d 3/2 at 71.5 eV. [46] In addition, the chemical structure of PDEGMA brushes was also confirmed in the high-resolution XPS scan of the C1s region, which can be convoluted into three peaks: C-C at 285.0 eV, C-O at 286.5 eV, and O-C=O at 288.7 eV, which all agree with previous results. [47]…”

Surface Design of Antifouling Vascular Constructs Bearing Biofunctional Peptides for Tissue Regeneration Applications

“…Importantly, a similar brush employing the same architecture was used to immobilize an ECM-mimicking peptide to promote the specific adhesion of a model fibroblast cell line. It was shown that although the polymer brush coating itself prevented non-specific adhesion, biofunctionalization with the peptide sequence led to the formation of a confluent cell layer [40].…”

Functionalizable Antifouling Coatings as Tunable Platforms for the Stress-Driven Manipulation of Living Cell Machinery

“…Surface-based methods are widely used to study cell adhesion and migration. However, surfaces engineered to accurately tailor cell-surface interactions are increasingly needed [19,20]. Recent works focused on the prevention of cell adhesion noticed antifouling coatings as useful platforms to diminish adhesion [21][22][23] and/or to pattern cell growth [24,25].…”