Arg-Gly-Asp peptide functionalized poly-amino acid/ poly (p-benzamide) copolymer with enhanced mechanical properties and osteogenicity

Poly-amino acid (PAA) isa promising biomaterial in biomedical engineering due to its similar amide bond structure to collagen and excellent biocompatibility, but the lack of osteogenic activity and inferior mechanical strength limit its long-term application in orthopedics. In this study, a poly-amino acid/poly (p-benzamide) (PAA-PBA) copolymer with high mechanical strength was designed and fabricated by the method of solution polymerization. The chain struc-tures, thermal properties and mechanical properties of these polymers were evaluated and results showed that PBA greatly promoted the mechanical properties of PAA, and the copolymer performed the maximum mechanical strengths with compressive strength, bending strength and tensile strength of 123 MPa, 107 MPa and, 95 MPa, respectively. To increase the bioactivity of surface, a bioactive coating that consists of poly-(dopamine) (PDA) nanolayers and tripeptide Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid (RGD) on sulfonated PAA-PBA copolymer was created. A porous structure appeared on the surface after modification, the surface roughness and hydrophilicity of copolymer has been improved obviously after introducing PDA and RGD peptide coating. The in vitro bioactivity evaluation demonstrated that the RGD-functionalized sample showed a significantly improved ability to promote bone apatite mineralization, cell adhe-sion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. In a word, such a strategy of material synthesis and surface modifi-cation method shows a great potential for broadening the use of PAA in the application of load-bearing bone substitute biomaterials.

Automated summary

This study designed and fabricated a poly-amino acid/poly (p-benzamide) (PAA-PBA) copolymer with high mechanical strength, which can address the limitations of PAA in orthopedics. By surface modification, the bioactivity of the material was significantly improved. Functionalized samples demonstrated improved ability to promote bone mineralization, cell adhesion, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation.