Thermo-responsive polymer brushes on glass plate prepared from a new class of amino acid-derived vinyl monomers and their applications in cell-sheet engineering.

In this study, we present a novel thermo-responsive polymer platform that is based on the alanine methyl ester-containing homopolymer (PNAAMe) and the copolymer with glycine methyl ester-based vinyl monomer (P(NAAMe-co-NAGMe)) brushes prepared via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. Water contact angles for these brushes measured at different temperatures reveal that the polymer brushes collapse and dehydrate around 13°C and 25°C (Ts), respectively, upon elevating the temperature. At 37°C, seeded fibroblasts (NIH/3T3) adhere to and spread well onto these brush surfaces although the copolymer brush of P(NAAMe-co-NAGMe) depresses the number of adherent cells less than half of that for the homopolymer of PNAAMe after 24h of cell culture due to increment in hydrophilicity.