Low Fouling Electrospun Scaffolds with Clicked Bioactive Peptides for Specific Cell Attachment

While electrospun fibers are of interest
as scaffolds for tissue
engineering applications, nonspecific surface interactions such as
protein adsorption often prevent researchers from controlling the
exact interactions between cells and the underlying material. In this
study we prepared electrospun fibers from a polystyrene-based macroinitiator,
which were then grafted with polymer brushes using surface-initiated
atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). These brush coatings
incorporated a trimethylsilyl-protected PEG-alkyne monomer, allowing
azide functional molecules to be covalently attached, while simultaneously
reducing nonspecific protein adsorption on the fibers. Cells were
able to attach and spread on fibrous substrates functionalized with
a pendant RGD-containing peptide, while spreading was significantly
reduced on nonfunctionalized fibers and those with the equivalent
RGE control peptide. This effect was observed both in the presence
and absence of serum in the culture media, indicating that protein
adsorption on the fibers was minimal and cell adhesion within the
fibrous scaffold was mediated almost entirely through the cell-adhesive
RGD-containing peptide.