PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) is known as a biocompatible polymer. It has been applied in many fields due to its low toxicity, optical transparency, elastic properties, gas permeability, ease of fabrication and low manufacturing cost. Despite these adva...
PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) is known as a biocompatible polymer. It has been applied in many fields due to its low toxicity, optical transparency, elastic properties, gas permeability, ease of fabrication and low manufacturing cost. Despite these advantages, a major drawback is that surface property of PDMS is its hydrophobicity and fast hydrophobic recovery after hydrophilization of surface. PDMS-based biomedical devices suffer low wettability and biofouling problems from nonspecific protein/hydrophobic analyte adsorption and cell/bacterial adhesion. As a result, when PDMS is used in a blood contact environment, safety issues arise, and low performance could be an anxiety for long-term application in implantable medical device.
In this study, PDMS is coated with a hyaluronic acid/gelatin (CHO-HA/Gel-NH2) hydrogel to modify surface property. Before coating the hydrogel on the surface, gelatin was conjugated with PDMS to increase the hydrophilicity of the surface by oxygen plasma treatment, silanization, and EDC/NHS reaction. Then the hydrogels were coated well on the PDMS surface. The successful synthesis of the CHO-HA, Gel-NH2 polymer structures was confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The successful conjugation of gelatin and coating hydrogel on PDMS were confirmed by ATR-FTIR, XPS, SEM. Hydrophilicity of surface was determined by measuring water contact angle. Bacterial adhesion was evaluated by culturing R. pickettii, S. epidermidis, P. aeruginosa on the PDMS surface. Also, in vitro test, human adipose stem cells (hASCs) were cultured to analyze the cell viability using LIVE/DEAD assay kit. As the result, hydrogel was successfully coated on the surface of PDMS. Hydrogel coated PDMS surface has more hydrophilicity than bare PDMS. The adhesion of each bacteria was lower in the hydrogel coated PDMS groups than control (no treated PDMS). In vivo test, Capsular tissue thickness was decreased on hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides, and collagen deposition was detected on Masson's trichrome stained slides. Gene expression related capsular contracture was determined by Real-time quantitative PCR. PDMS surface analysis confirmed successful PDMS surface modification. After that, by coating the hydrogel, through in vitro and in vivo experiments, it was found that it affects the hydrophilicity and biocompatibility of the PDMS surface.
Therefore, in this study, we provide PDMS coating method using hydrogel to enhance surface hydrophilicity and biocompatibility for implantable biomedical device. This hydrogel coated PDMS could be as promising instrument in implantable biomedical device. The proposed method is an important step in the development of PDMS-based devices.