Enhancement of Polymer Cytocompatibility by Nanostructuring of Polymer Surface

Abstract EN

Polymers with their advantageous physical, chemical, mechanical, and electrical properties and easy manufacturing are widely used in biology, tissue engineering, and medicine, for example, as prosthetic materials.

In some cases the polymer usage may be impeded by low biocompatibility of common synthetic polymers.

The biocompatibility can be improved by modification of polymer surface, for example, by plasma discharge, irradiation with ionizing radiation, and sometime subsequent grafting with suitable organic (e.g., amino-acids) or inorganic (e.g., gold nanoparticles) agents.

In this way new chemically active structures are created on the polymer surface, and in some cases new surface relief is created.

Recent advances in nanotechnology and in characterization of nanostructured objects open the way to development of new polymer-based materials with better bio-properties and higher application potential in biomedicine.

Some of recent results obtained in the field are summarized and discussed in this paper.