%0 Journal Article
%T Surface Engineered Polymeric Biomaterials with Improved Biocontact Properties
%A Todorka G. Vladkova
%J International Journal of Polymer Science
%D 2010
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2010/296094
%X We present many examples of surface engineered polymeric biomaterials with nanosize modified layers, controlled protein adsorption, and cellular interactions potentially applicable for tissue and/or blood contacting devices, scaffolds for cell culture and tissue engineering, biosensors, biological microchips as well as approaches to their preparation. 1. Introduction Onmany parameters, polymeric materials satisfy the requirements of biomedical applications. However,the last ones are limited in most cases by the nonsufficient biocontact properties of the polymer. Surface engineering creating nanosize layers with controlled chemical composition, topography and roughness, and hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance emerged as a simple, useful, and versatile approach to solve the problem. From the mid-1900s to the end of the last century, biomaterials were petroleum-derived synthetic polymers designed to be inert in vivo, that is, to perform their function without interacting with the organism [1]. These biomaterials are characterized with exclusively low protein adsorption and weak interactions with blood, living tissues, and cells. Over the past decades, many new synthetic and biologically derived polymers have been studied and applied, altering this paradigm [2, 3]. Now material scientists have shifted toward the design of bioactive materials that integrate with biological molecules or cells and regenerate tissue [4¨C6]. Biomaterials for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering gain special interests. Tissue engineering is based on cell seeding on a substrate followed by culturing in bioreactor or directly in the human body. The substrate is often a polymeric biomaterial that should stimulate not only the cell attachment and differentiation but also the extra cellular matrix formation and tissue regeneration. Advanced biospecific and biomimetic materials consisting of bioinert environment enriched of ligands for adhesive receptors, usually short amino acid sequences, like Arg-Gly-Asp or carbohydrates and/or functional parts of hormones, enzymes or growth factors, are currently under intense investigation [7, 8]. Limited knowledge about the interface phenomena on the border of the living and nonliving matter, such as protein adsorption and bioadhesion, are the theoretical base for the development of bioinert or bioactive surface engineered biomaterials. The mechanisms of protein adsorption and bioadhesion are a key question in many studies but despite the enormous efforts, they remain not fully understood. The biological cascade of all nondesirable reactions
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/2010/296094/