Preparation and Characterization of Superlowfouling Electrospun Scaffolds of Zwitterionic Polysulfobetaine Methacrylate for Biomedical Applications

Zwitterionic surfaces and hydrogels have been previously studied for their superlow biofouling characteristics, a quality essential to biomaterials and tissue engineering. However in order to be useful as tissue-engineered constructs, scaffolds are needed. Electrospinning (ES) has been shown to produce continuous, porous, and fibrous matrix mimicking the structures of native extracellular matrix. Here we have prepared fibrous scaffolds of polysulfobetaine methacrylate (pSBMA) with different fiber diameters for their potential biomedical applications by ES. Zwitterionic monomer, [2-(methacryloxy)ethyl]-dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)-ammonium hydroxide, was polymerized to afford polysulfobetaine methacrylate (pSBMA) via free radical polymerization and crosslinked with tetraethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The biocompatibility of the scaffolds with different diameters was examined by bacterial adhesion, protein adsorption, and cell attachment to show that ES scaffolds of pSBMA possess exceptional superlow biofouling properties.