Surface grafting of electrospun fibers using ATRP and RAFT for the control of biointerfacial interactions.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The ability to present signalling molecules within a low fouling 3D environment that mimics the extracellular matrix is an important goal for a range of biomedical applications, both in vitro and in vivo. Cell responses can be triggered by non-specific protein interactions occurring on the surface of a biomaterial, which is an undesirable process when studying specific receptor-ligand interactions. It is therefore useful to present specific ligands of interest to cell surface receptors in a 3D environment that minimizes non-specific interactions with biomolecules, such as proteins. METHOD: In this study, surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of poly(eth..