Dopamine-Mediated Biopolymer Multilayer Coatings for Modulating Cell Behavior, Lubrication, and Drug Release

Biopolymer coatings on implants mediate the interactionsbetweenthe synthetic material and its biological environment. Owing to itsease of preparation and the possibility to incorporate other bioactivemolecules, layer-by-layer deposition is a method commonly used inthe construction of biopolymer multilayers. However, this method typicallyrequires at least two types of oppositely charged biopolymers, thuslimiting the range of macromolecular options by excluding unchargedbiopolymers. Here, we present a layer-by-layer approach that employsmussel-inspired polydopamine as the adhesive intermediate layer tobuild biopolymer multilayer coatings without requiring any additionalchemical modifications. We select three biopolymers with differentcharge states anionic alginate, neutral dextran, and cationicpolylysine and successfully assemble them into mono-, double-,or triple-layers. Our results demonstrate that both the layer numberand the polymer type modulate the coating properties. Overall, increasingthe number of layers in the coatings leads to reduced cell attachment,lower friction, and higher drug loading capacity but does not alterthe surface potential. Moreover, varying the biopolymer type affectsthe surface potential, macrophage differentiation, lubrication performance,and drug release behavior. This proof-of-concept study offers a straightforwardand universal coating method, which may broaden the use of multilayercoatings in biomedical applications.

Automated summary

Biopolymer coatings on implants mediate interactions between synthetic material and biological environment. A layer-by-layer approach using mussel-inspired polydopamine as adhesive intermediate layer is presented to build biopolymer multilayer coatings without additional chemical modifications. The number of layers and polymer type both modulate the coating properties. This study offers a straightforward and universal coating method, which may broaden the use of multilayer coatings in biomedical applications.