Oxygen Tolerant and Cytocompatible Radical Polymerization Using Iron
The controlled growth of polymers from supports loaded with living cells could pave the way for the fabrication of active biomaterials.
A team of researchers lead by Dr. Edmondo M. Benetti (Polymer Surfaces Group & Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology) has recently demonstrated that the application of zerovalent iron plates during surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), in conjunction with cytocompatible catalysts, enable to grow bio-relevant polymers forming “brushes” from cell cultures, substantially altering the settlement of cells without affecting their viability.
While systematically assessing the application of iron-based SI-ATRP for the controlled synthesis of a variety of polymer brushes, the researchers from DMATL proved that when this process is mediated by Fe(0) plates, it can be efficiently performed under ambient conditions and without the need for deoxygenation of the reaction mixtures. Fe(0)-mediated SI-ATRP can additionally be performed within cell culture media and in the presence of primary articular chondrocytes (ACs) that had been previously cultured on initiator-bearing substrates, generating brushes that lead to a marked shift in the interfacial properties of the supports, and a consequent modulation of their affinity towards cells. This represents a radical advance in the application of reversible deactivation radical polymerizations (RDRPs) for materials design, as achieving a highly controlled growth of polymers from supports loaded with living cells would pave the way for the fabrication of active biomaterials, capable of re-shaping their interfacial properties in a dynamic fashion, and following biocompatible processes.
You can read more about cytocompatible Fe(0)-mediated ATRP in a recent paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society:
A. Layadi, B. Kessel, W. Yan, M. Romio, N.D. Spencer, M. Zenobi-Wong, K. Matyjaszewski, E.M. Benetti Oxygen Tolerant and Cytocompatible Iron(0)-Mediated ATRP Enables the Controlled Growth of Polymer Brushes from Mammalian Cell Cultures J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, external pageDOI:10.1021/jacs.9b12974