Cell adhesive and antifouling polyvinyl chloride surfaces via wet chemical modification

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most frequently used polymers for the manufacturing of medical devices. Limitations for its usage are based upon unfavorable surface properties of the polymer including its hydrophobicity and lack of functionalities in order to increase its versatility. To address this issue, wet chemical modification of PVC was performed through surface amination using the bifunctional compound ethylene diamine. The reaction was conducted in order to achieve maximum surface amination while leaving the bulk material unaffected. The initial activation step was characterized by means of various methods including contact angle measurements, colorimetric amine quantification, infrared spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography. Depth profiles were obtained by a confocal microscopic method using fluorescence labeling. Exclusive surface modification was thus confirmed. To demonstrate biological applications of the presented technique, two examples were chosen: The covalent immobilization of the cell adhesive Asp-Gly-Asp-Ser-peptide (RGD) onto PVC samples yielded a surface that strongly supported cellular adhesion and proliferation of fibroblasts. In contrast, the decoration of PVC with the hydrophilic polymer polyethylene glycol prevented cellular adhesion to a large extent. The impact of these modifications was demonstrated by cell culture experiments.