Facile modification of electrospun fibrous structures with antifouling zwitterionic hydrogels

Abstract

Electrospinning technology can easily produce different shaped fibrous structures, making them highly valuable to various biomedical applications. However, surface contamination of biomolecules, cells, or blood has emerged as a significant challenge to the success of electrospun devices, especially artificial blood vessels, catheters and wound dressings etc. Many efforts have been made to resist the surface non-specific biomolecules or cells adsorption, but most of them require complex pre-treatment processes, hard-to-remove metal catalysts or rigorous reaction conditions. In addition, the stability of antifouling coatings, especially in complex conditions, is still a major concern. In this work, inspired by the interpenetrating polymer network and reinforced concrete structure, an efficient and facile strategy for modifying hydrophobic electrospun meshes and tubes with antifouling zwitterionic hydrogels has been introduced. The resulting products could efficiently resist the adhesion of proteins, cells, or even fresh whole blood. Meanwhile, they could maintain the shapes and mechanical strength of the original electrospun structures. Furthermore, the hydrogel structures could retain stable in a physiological condition for at least 3 months. This paper provided a general antifouling and hydrophilicity surface modification strategy for various fibrous structures, and could be of great value for many biomedical applications where antifouling properties are critical.

MOF-Based Antibiofouling Hemoadsorbent for Highly Efficient Removal of Protein-Bound Bilirubin

“…34 Xu et al reported that PCB hydrogel modified electrospun polystyrene fibrous tubes could efficiently resist the formation of blood clots. 35 Cai et al demonstrated that AC coated with PCB hydrogel was highly hemocompatible and could maintain the adsorption performance of pristine AC in biological solutions due to the ability to resist protein fouling. 4 Herein, based on MIL-101(Cr) and antibiofouling zwitterionic PCB hydrogel, a novel hemoadsorbent (PCB-MIL101) was developed for rapid and efficient adsorption toward BR, a typical pathogenic toxin in hemoperfusion applications.…”

Tailoring bioinks of extrusion-based bioprinting for cutaneous wound healing

“…Zwitterionic hydrogels possess both negative and positive charges, which confer superhydrophilic properties of low bio-absorptions [ 89 ], low coefficient of friction [ 90 ] and high electrostatic attraction to water. Pan et al [ 91 ] utilized a zwitterionic photochemistry and optical stereolithography to developed a novel tough and highly solvated hybrid hydrogels, which exhibits superior antifouling capacities with significantly less absorption of bovine serum albumin.…”

Anti-Biofouling Polymers with Special Surface Wettability for Biomedical Applications

“…For example, the PPGL with a WCA near zero showed a superhydrophilic character and good antibiofouling ability tested in anti-BSA and anti-myoglobin experiments (Gam-Derouich et al, 2011). Superhydrophilic anti-biofouling zwitterionic polymers show great potential for biomedical applications (Chan et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2017;Xia et al, 2019). Rongxin Su and coauthors reported an anti-biofouling three-block polymer with zwitterionic chains on the bottlebrush polymers that showed high stability in highsaline solutions and over an extensive pH range (Xia et al, 2019).…”

“…Superhydrophilic anti-biofouling zwitterionic polymers show great potential for biomedical applications ( Chan et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2017 ; Xia et al, 2019 ). Rongxin Su and coauthors reported an anti-biofouling three-block polymer with zwitterionic chains on the bottlebrush polymers that showed high stability in high-saline solutions and over an extensive pH range ( Xia et al, 2019 ).…”

“…The anti-biofouling hydrogel did not form capsules when subcutaneously implanted in mice over 2 months ( Chan et al, 2020 ). Lei Zhang and coauthors reported an efficient and simple strategy ( Figure 4A ) to modify hydrophobic electrospun meshes with zwitterionic PCBAA hydrogels to obtain superhydrophilic anti-biofouling meshes with WCAs of less than 5° ( Figures 4B,C ) ( Xu et al, 2017 ). The coated superhydrophilic mesh resisted attachment of FITC-BSA, FITC-HSA proteins, and GLC-82 cells ( Figures 4D–4K ).…”