SUPPORTED CELL MIMETIC MONOLAYERS AND THEIR COMPATIBILITY - Advanced Biomaterials: Fundamentals, Processing, and Applications - page 652

20.8 Conclusions 675

Acknowledgments 675

References 675

20.1 OVERVIEW

This chapter reviews the biological interactions to material surface with a per-
spective of developing miniaturized biomedical devices. These interactions are
surface initiated, and the various surface modifi cation strategies are reviewed.
Particularly, the opportunities of exploring Thin Solid Films (TSF) for this purpose
are reviewed. Biomimicry of cell membrane components for the development of
TSF for biomaterial application are reviewed with an emphasis for its develop-
ment and a study of various physical, chemical and biological properties of the
TSF at air/water or air/solid interface are reviewed.

20.2 DENSE THIN SOLID FILMS

Dense thin solid fi lms (TSF) of few nanometers (a monolayer) with desired func-
tional properties have been extensively explored for electronic 1 and computing 2
applications. There is immense opportunity of these TSF, for bioactive post
synthetic surface modifi cation of biomaterials and devices, such as bio-sensors,
detectors, displays, electronic circuit components, and so on. 3 The self - assembly of
the amphiphilic molecules such as surfactants, lipids, and amphiphilic polymeric
brushes to form two dimensional (2D) TSF could be laterally stabilized on various
kinds of materials. Such composite systems (developed in nano to macro scale)
can do controlled ligand supplementation by avoiding biofouling for an optimum
performance under diverse biological conditions.

20.3 BIOMIMETIC APPROACHES IN SURFACE MODIFICATION

Biomimetic approaches were found to be successful in various disciplines.
Biological membrane biomimicry could be explored for the post-synthetic surface
modifi cation of nanodevices and materials using TSF. Cell membranes form
the cell boundaries are fl uid and dynamic as well as effectively participating in
the biological communication processes. This is attributed to the properties of the
membrane components, which govern the fl uidity, packing, and orientation of
the surface groups 4 . The lipids form the major class of the structural elements,
and are heterogeneous across the membrane. The trans membrane lipid hetere-
genecity is closely controlled in living systems and is disrupted under pathological
conditions. Surfaces modifi ed with the heterogeneous lipid compositions and
lipid protein as well as lipid-macromolecular interactions could be explored for
tissue 5 and blood-compatible surface modifi cation 6 applications such as drug and
gene delivery.