Improving the blood compatibility of material surfaces via biomolecule-immobilized mussel-inspired coatings

In this article, we presented a general protocol to prepare biomolecule-immobilized mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) coatings to improve the blood compatibility of broad ranges of material surfaces. It needs only a simple immersion of substrates in dopamine solution at alkaline pH to form mussel-inspired PDA coating, and then immersing the PDA coated substrates into biomolecule solution to conjugate biomolecules. XPS, water contact angle analysis, and protein assay confirmed that biomolecules could be successfully coated on several material surfaces, including nylon, cellulose, and polyethersulfone membrane surfaces. For the protein fouling resistance, the bovine serum albumin (BSA) modified surfaces were more effective than the amino acid modified surfaces. And the platelet adhesion on the BSA-modified material surfaces was obviously depressed. These results indicated that the blood compatibility of the surfaces was improved by the biomacromolecule-immobilized mussel-inspired coating which might be considered as a universal coating to modify a wide variety of materials. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 96A: 38-45, 2011.