Covalent Mucin Coatings Form Stable Anti‐Biofouling Layers on a Broad Range of Medical Polymer Materials

Abstract

Approximately 10% of all hospital patients contract infections from temporary clinical implants such as urinal and vascular catheters or tracheal tubes. The ensuing complications reach from patient inconvenience and tissue inflammation to severe, life threatening complications such as pneumonia or bacteremia. All these device‐associated nosocomial infections have the same origin: biofouling, i.e., the unwanted deposition of proteins, bacteria, and cells onto the device. To date, most strategies to overcome these problems are device specific, which results in high development efforts and costs. Here, it is demonstrated how one and the same coupling mechanism can be used to create a covalent antifouling coating employing mucin glycoproteins on multiple materials: with this method, a stable mucin layer can be generated on a broad range of polymer materials which are frequently used in medical engineering. It is shown that the mucin coating exhibits excellent stability against mechanical, thermal, and chemical challenges and reduces protein adsorption as well as prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell adhesion. Thus, the coating mechanism described here introduces a promising strategy to overcome biofouling issues on a broad range of medical devices.

Surface adsorption and lubrication properties of plant and dairy proteins: A comparative study

“…Coating the hydrophobic PDMS surfaces with BSM entailed a significant reduction in contact angle (97.5°, data not shown). The value is much higher than values reported previously ( Sarkar et al, 2017 ; Winkeljann et al, 2020 ) as PDMS was not hydrophilized by O 2 -plasma treatment prior to the physisorption by BSM in the current study as opposed to the previous reports. On BSM-coated surfaces, WPI and PPI were slightly more hydrophobic than those without BSM and also more than BSM itself ( Fig.…”

Bioinspired Dopamine/Mucin Coatings Provide Lubricity, Wear Protection, and Cell‐Repellent Properties for Medical Applications

“…Yet, even if such a surface treatment has not been conducted, those findings agree well with previous results from the literature which have reported good cell adhesion on PDMS as well as cell‐repellent properties for PTFE. [ 12,33 ] Anyways, based on the results discussed above (see Section 2.3. ), it is possible that a reduction in the cell colonization efficiency can be achieved with our double‐layer coatings for all three devices—even for the PTFE‐based blood vessel substitute.…”

“…Mucins are key components of mucosal systems such as the tear fluid, saliva, or stomach mucus and have become popular due to their superior biocompatibility, excellent tribological performance, as well as anti‐bacterial and anti‐biofouling properties. [ 10 ] However, mucin‐based coatings described in the literature are either based on passive adsorption [ 11 ] (which works well on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)‐based surfaces but does not create stable coatings that withstand mechanical shear very well) or involve covalent coupling methods [ 12 ] (which require polymeric substrates that can be chemically activated). For metallic surfaces such as steel or PTFE‐based materials; however, neither of those two approaches are very promising as there are no appropriate functional groups on those surfaces that were to offer anchoring points for a stable mucin attachment.…”

Biopolymer‐Based Coatings: Promising Strategies to Improve the Biocompatibility and Functionality of Materials Used in Biomedical Engineering

“…[ 52 ] Furthermore, the wettability of technical polymers covers the whole possible spectrum, i.e., from (super)hydrophobic to hydrophilic. [ 56 ] Also from a chemical point of view, technical polymers are very interesting for biomedical applications, since their composition can be tuned and post‐polymerization modifications are possible. Together, this allows for equipping them with specific properties as required for a selected application.…”

“…[ 108 ] Also, coatings comprising mucin glycoproteins have anti‐biofouling properties: they can lower the adhesion efficiency of different bacteria including S. aureus , S. pneumoniae , and S. epidermis . [ 56,109 ] Similarly, also coatings employing the mucinous glycoprotein lubricin reduce antibiofouling events by counteracting unspecific protein adsorption [ 110 ] and fibroblast adhesion. [ 111 ] Other biopolymer coatings which possess antiadhesive properties include those generated from chitosan, [ 94c,112 ] phosphorylcholine, [ 113 ] dextran [ 114 ] and poly ( l ‐lactic) acid.…”