Pretreatment of amphiphilic comb polymer surfaces dramatically affects protein adsorption.

New applications in regenerative biotechnology require the ability to understand and control protein-surface interactions on micrometer and submicrometer length scales. Evidence presented here shows that micropatterned amphiphilic comb polymer films exhibit a pretreatment-dependent behavior with respect to protein adsorption for the proteins fibronectin, laminin, and for serum. A micropatterned surface, consisting of protein-reactive regions, separated by comb polymer, was created and tested for protein adsorption using the surface-sensitive imaging tool TOF-SIMS. Immersion of micropatterned surfaces in solutions of fibronectin or laminin resulted in uniform protein coverage on both the comb polymer and protein-reactive regions. However, preimmersion of similarly patterned surfaces in water for 2 h prior to protein incubation was found to dramatically improve the protein-resistant properties of the comb polymer regions. These results are consistent with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) side chain reorientation and/or hydration and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) backbone segregation away from the interface region.