LAUSR

Abstract Copolymers comprising 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) are useful in the production of biomedical devices because of the antifouling effects. As copolymers of MPC with a hydrophobic comonomer are used as a coating agent, their composition, molecular weight, and sequence possibly impact their antifouling effect. In this study, random and block PMDs (rPMDs and bPMDs, respectively) with different compositions were synthesized, and their antifouling effects were examined. Short rPMDs (approximately 50 kDa) with different MPC compositions, from 34 mol% to 85 mol%, were stably coated and suppressed the adhesion of HeLa cells efficiently. rPMDs with 66 mol% and 85 mol% in MPC showed hydrophobic domains at the surface, to which macrophage-like RAW264 cells were adhered. However, rPMDs with 34 mol% and 92 mol% in MPC showed neither hydrophobic domains nor the adhesion of RAW264 cells after the 1-day culture. On the other hand, the antifouling effects of bPMDs were lower than those of rPMDs because of the micelle formation. Therefore, our results suggest that a variety of rPMDs with different MPC contents and different molecular weights can be used as coating agents, which are different from the poly(MPC-co-butyl methacrylate)s used conventionally.