A NOVEL BIOTINYLATED DEGRADABLE POLYMER FOR CELL-INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS

We describe the development of a novel biodegradable polymer designed to present bioactive motifs at the surfaces of materials of any archit ecture. The polymer is a block copolymer of biotinylated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with poly(lactic acid) (PLA); it utilizes the high-affi nity coupling of the biotin-avidin system to undergo postfabrication s urface engineering. We show, using surface plasmon resonance analysis (SPR) and confocal microscopy that surface engineering can be achieved under aqueous conditions in short time periods. These surfaces intera ct with cell surface molecules and generate beneficial responses as de monstrated by the model study of integrin-mediated spreading of endoth elial cells on polymer surfaces presenting RGD peptide adhesion sequen ces. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.