Immobilization of Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor on Model Biomaterials by Plasma Graft Polymerization

Acrylic acid was grafted on the surface of polypropylene (PP) film via plasma‐induced technology. It was shown by FT‐IR that there were carboxyl groups on the surface of the modified PP film. The grafting ratio was analyzed quantitatively through a dyeing process. The effects of the technology parameters of the plasma‐treatment and graft polymerization on the grafting ratio, such as power, discharge time, concentration of monomer and active species density, reaction temperature and time, were characterized. Moreover, the content of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) that was anchored on the surface of the modified PP film was measured through enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results show that the amount of CNTF immobilized on the surface of the modified PP film increase with increasing content of carboxyl groups, showing that the existence of carboxyl groups on the surface of the PP film is beneficial to the immobilization of CNTF.

Keywords:

• polypropylene
• grafting
• plasma
• acrylic acid
• ciliary neurotrophic factor
• immobilization

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge support from the Scientific Research Foundation from the State Education Ministry (SRF for ROCS, SEM), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (00ZE14005, 027252045).