Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Functionalization of Biomaterials
and Applications
6.1. Introduction
Bacterial adhesion, biocompatibility and biointegration on
implanted prosthetic materials represent major problems for public
health. To combat these problems, solid surface modification is
required. An alternative that is becoming more and more recurrent
nowadays is the grafting of biomolecules or/and bioactive polymers.
The use bioactive polymers has been shown to be an excellent
solution. Tethering bioactive polymers to a surface has emerged as a
promising tool to tailor surface properties. Polymer brushes can be
immobilized on appropriate surfaces using either a physisorption
(chain attachment mainly through van der Waals interactions) or a
covalent strategy (anchoring by chemical bonds). Although the
physisorption technique has been used to modify polymers and
metallic surfaces, they suffer from the drawbacks inherent in their
non-permanent nature: the release of polymers from such modified
surfaces and the subsequent loss of activity potentially make them
unsuitable for most biomedical applications. So, it is important for
polymers to be covalently immobilized on the surface. Alternatively,
several techniques for covalently tethering well-defined polymer
brushes onto surfaces have been developed, including the covalent
attachment of end-functionalized polymers incorporating an
