Protein Micropatterns by PEG Grafting on Dewetted PLGA Films
- Manuel Ghezzi
- ,
- Stuart C. Thickett
- ,
- Andrew M. Telford
- ,
- Christopher D. Easton
- ,
- Laurence Meagher
- , and
- Chiara Neto
Abstract

The ability to control protein and cell positioning on a microscopic scale is crucial in many biomedical applications, such as single cell studies. We have developed and investigated the grafting of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) brushes onto poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) thin films, which can be micropatterned by exploiting their spontaneous dewetting on top of polystyrene (PS) films. Dense PEG brushes with excellent protein repellence were achieved on PLGA by using cloud point grafting conditions, and selective adsorption of proteins on the micropatterned substrates was achieved by exploiting the different affinity protein adsorption onto the PEG brushes and the PS holes. PEG-grafted PLGA films showed better resistance against spontaneous degradation in buffer than bare PLGA films, due to passivation by the thin PEG coating. The simplicity of dewetting and subsequent grafting approaches, coupled with the ability to coat and pattern nonplanar substrates give rise to possible applications of PEG-grafted PLGA films in single cell studies and cell cultures for tissue engineering.
Cited By
This article is cited by 16 publications.
- Yu-Hsuan Weng, Heng-Kwong Tsao, Yu-Jane Sheng. Patterning Dewetting and Self-Healing of Polymer Nanofilms on a Brush Layer. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2019, 123 (6) , 3560-3567. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b10889
- Ming Chiu, Jared A. Wood, Asaph Widmer-Cooper, Chiara Neto. Aligned Droplet Patterns by Dewetting of Polymer Bilayers. Macromolecules 2018, 51 (15) , 5485-5493. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.8b00620
- Silke Heinen and Marie Weinhart . Poly(glycidyl ether)-Based Monolayers on Gold Surfaces: Control of Grafting Density and Chain Conformation by Grafting Procedure, Surface Anchor, and Molecular Weight. Langmuir 2017, 33 (9) , 2076-2086. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03927
- Chun-lai Ren, Robert Schlapak, Roland Hager, Igal Szleifer, and Stefan Howorka . Molecular and Thermodynamic Factors Explain the Passivation Properties of Poly(ethylene glycol)-Coated Substrate Surfaces against Fluorophore-Labeled DNA Oligonucleotides. Langmuir 2015, 31 (42) , 11491-11501. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b02674
- Ian Wong, Guo Hui Teo, Chiara Neto, and Stuart C. Thickett . Micropatterned Surfaces for Atmospheric Water Condensation via Controlled Radical Polymerization and Thin Film Dewetting. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2015, 7 (38) , 21562-21570. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b06856
- Lucas W. Teunissen, Maarten M. J. Smulders, Han Zuilhof. 19 nm‐Thick Grafted‐To Polymer Brushes onto Optimized Poly(Dopamine)‐Coated Surfaces. Advanced Materials Interfaces 2023, 10 (18) https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202202503
- Hamish Poli, Alexandra L. Mutch, Anitha A, Saso Ivanovski, Cedryck Vaquette, David G. Castner, María Natividad Gómez-Cerezo, Lisbeth Grøndahl. Evaluation of surface layer stability of surface-modified polyester biomaterials. Biointerphases 2020, 15 (6) https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0000687
- Zhen Chen, Zengzhi Zhang. Recent progress in beetle-inspired superhydrophilic-superhydrophobic micropatterned water-collection materials. Water Science and Technology 2020, 442C https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2020.238
- Christopher D. Easton, Calum Kinnear, Sally L. McArthur, Thomas R. Gengenbach. Practical guides for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: Analysis of polymers. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films 2020, 38 (2) https://doi.org/10.1116/1.5140587
- Ahmed Owais, Alex M. Djerdjev, James M. Hook, Alex Yuen, William Rowlands, Nicholas G. White, Chiara Neto. Host–guest interactions of catechol and 4-ethylcatechol with surface-immobilized blue-box molecules. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2019, 7 (20) , 12713-12722. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9TA00556K
- Elena Colusso, Alessandro Martucci, Chiara Neto. Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting. Advanced Materials Interfaces 2019, 6 (4) https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201801629
- Namita Jaiswal, Abhiram Hens, Manosree Chatterjee, Nibedita Mahata, Nagahanumaiah, Nripen Chanda. Polymeric-Patterned Surface for Biomedical Applications. 2018, 227-251. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7751-7_10
- Ahmed Owais, Truis Smith-Palmer, Angus Gentle, Chiara Neto. Influence of long-range forces and capillarity on the function of underwater superoleophobic wrinkled surfaces. Soft Matter 2018, 14 (32) , 6627-6634. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SM00709H
- Andrew M. Telford, Stuart C. Thickett, Chiara Neto. Functional patterned coatings by thin polymer film dewetting. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 2017, 507 , 453-469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2017.07.004
- Antoine Venault, Chih-Chen Ye, Yi-Cun Lin, Ching-Wei Tsai, Jheng-Fong Jhong, Ruoh-Chyu Ruaan, Akon Higuchi, Arunachalam Chinnathambi, Hsin-Tsung Ho, Yung Chang. Zwitterionic fibrous polypropylene assembled with amphiphatic carboxybetaine copolymers for hemocompatible blood filtration. Acta Biomaterialia 2016, 40 , 130-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2016.01.031
- Eric Charrault, Thomas Lee, Christopher D. Easton, Chiara Neto. Boundary flow on end-grafted PEG brushes. Soft Matter 2016, 12 (6) , 1906-1914. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5SM02546J