Adsorption and functionality of fibrinogen on triblock copolymer-coated surfaces

To assess the influence of the surface microenvironment on the adsorption and biologic activity of fibrinogen, a series of poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(propylene oxide) triblock copolymers were adsorbed to solid, hydrophobic polystyrene-divinylbenzene beads. The copolymers, which were of the form ;The copolymers appear to adsorb in an expanded fashion, a conclusion supported by surface pressure-area isotherms of the copolymers spread at the air-water interface. As compared to copolymer-free surfaces, protein adsorption decreases by up to 90% as the PEO chain length of the copolymers increases. The copolymer coatings appear to lower fibrinogen adsorption by limiting the available surface area. On surfaces coated with the hydrophobic versions of the copolymers, the biologic assays demonstrate that fibrinogen is as reactive/coagulable as for surfaces with saturated coverages of fibrin despite that these copolymer-coated surfaces have 60% less fibrinogen adsorbed to them. When adsorbed at the same low surface concentration in the absence of copolymer, fibrinogen is not active. Enzymatic processing of bound fibrinogen suggests that the presence of the copolymers promote the adsorption of the protein in end-on fashion. It is proposed here, that when adsorbed end-on, fibrinogen is functional because its reactive sites are accessible to enzymes relevant to fibrin clot formation.