Protein adsorption behaviour of ionogenic poly(HEMA) membranes: a fluorescence study

A series of ionogenic poly(HEMA) membranes which were prepared by bulk copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and anionic or cationic comonomers, acrylic acid (AA), and dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate (DMAEMA), were characterized by equilibrium swelling measurements, surface free energies, and protein adsorption studies. It was found that their equilibrium water content (EWC) values are greater than 40% which increases with increasing comonomer concentration. That is why the surface free energy is approximately the same (approximately 60 erg cm-2) for all surfaces and does not depend mainly on the composition of the polymer matrix. The adsorption of two plasma proteins that have received much attention, i.e. BSA and fibrinogen, on these membranes was followed by fluorimetric measurements as a function of time. The uptake of proteins from dilute solutions appeared to be directly related to the type and density of surface charge, and also structural properties of the proteins.