Star-Shaped Thermoresponsive Polymers with Various Functional Groups for Cell Sheet Engineering.

This study demonstrates the facile preparation of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-immobilized Petri dishes by drop-casting a star-shaped copolymer of hyperbranched polystyrene (HBPS) possessing PNIPAM arms (HBPS-g-PNIPAM) functionalized with polar groups. HBPS was synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) self-condensing vinyl polymerization (SCVP), and HBPS polymers with different terminal structures were prepared by changing the monomer structure. HBPS-g-PNIPAM was synthesized by the grafting of PNIPAM from each terminal of HBPS.