Grafting of Functional Monomers on Biomaterials - Biointerfaces: Where Material Meets Biology - page 312

d n 3 r 4 n g | 2

CHAPTER 11
Grafting of Functional
Monomers on Biomaterials

LISBETH GRØNDAHL* AND JING ZHONG LUK

The University of Queensland, School of Chemistry and Molecular
Biosciences, 4072 St Lucia, QLD, Australia
*Email: [e-mail]

11.1 Introduction
Biointerfaces are seen as a key component when designing new generation
biomaterials. The events that take place at the biointerface upon implant-
ation or body fluid exposure of a biomaterial have been investigated exten-
sively over the past decades. Furthermore, the means of changing the surface
properties to elicit a specific biological response has received ample atten-
tion. 1-4 Yet, most commercial medical implants have been designed based
mainly on their bulk properties (strength, stability, macroscopic structure) and
only a few medical implants exist on the market for which the material's
surface properties have subsequently been optimised. One such example is
CARMEDA s BioActive Surface in which heparin is end-point attached to
an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) vascular graft fabricated by
GORE-TEX s . 5 It is apparent that at present an ideal solution cannot be 'dialled
up' and much fundamental research is still required before medical implants
will have ideal surface properties for their intended application.
This chapter aims to illustrate the current status with regards to grafting
of functional monomers on biomaterials and will be restricted to grafting on
polymeric substrates. Since optimisation of the biointerface is important for
both biostable and biodegradable polymers examples from both classes will

.