Patent Application
20050237480
Ultraviolet-based graft polymerization using a substrate susceptible of a free radical reaction and selected monomers yields surface properties that can be tailored for use with biomaterials used in medical applications, in specialized biocompatible polymer applications such as ocular lenses, and analytical devices, including particularly polymer-based microdevices.
Specially engineered polymer substrates play an important role in medicine, surgery, and analytical biochemistry by providing materials, often referred to as biomaterials, that feature unique characteristics that are important in biological systems. These polymers can be found in surgical implants, lenses, and medical devices used directly with patients, and in analytical devices where biological samples are analyzed. Moreover, these polymer substrates may be modified with specially engineered surface coatings or treatments that enhance the utility of these polymers in several important applications. Known surface treatments involve chemical coating, radiation treatments, and several other techniques to alter the physical characteristics of a surface. Surface treatments for polymer substrates and other biomaterials are typically designed based on the application for which the polymer substrate is intended. One particularly interesting approach applies a polymer layer to an existing polymer substrate to tailor the surface chemistry for a particular purpose. The application of an additional polymer layer, or “graft,” to an existing polymer substrate significantly enhances the utility of many conventional polymers.
Methods for modifying the surface of polymer substrates for use in biomedical or other applications include the use of coatings (addition), surfactant addition (blending), etchings (roughening), argon or nitrogen plasmas (ion implantation), oxygen plasma or corona discharge (oxidation), exposure to flame or reaction to alkalines (oxidation), and exposure to UV, plasma, or ionizing radiation with chemical treatment (graft polymerization). For many important medical applications, the addition and blending methods are undesirable because contaminants break down or leech from the polymer substrate over time. Physical methods of modification of a polymer substrate often result in limited functionality or in the requirement for difficult and/or expensive procedures.
Despite the difficulties, surface modifications, both chemical and physical, are in widespread use to tailor the surface properties of polymer substrates for biomedical applications. Chan, C. M. Polymer Surface Modification and Characterization, Hanser/Gardner Publications: Cincinnati, 1994; Chapters 1, 2, 5; Garbassi, F.; Morra, M.; Occhiello, E. Polymer Surfaces, 2nd ed.; John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1998; Chapters 2, 6, 7, 12. These applications include coatings for catheters, prostheses, grafts, and other implants. Typical goals are a decrease in biomolecular adsorption, an increase in the hydrophilic or hydrophobic character of the surface, the attachment of a biologically active molecule, or an alteration in the lubricity of the surface. Ikada, Y. Biomaterials 1994, 15, 725-36; Belanger, M. C.; Marois, Y. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. (Appl. Biomater.) 2001, 58, 467-77; Jagur-Grodzinski, J. Heterogeneous Modification of Polymers, John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1997; Chapters 7, 8. Graft polymerization, in particular, has seen widespread use in applications where a surface layer is intended to produce biocompatibility. Chan, C. M, supra. Typically the process involves the creation of reactive sites (radicals) on the polymer surface followed by covalent linkage of a preformed polymer, or more commonly a monomer which can then be used as the initiation site for a polymeric chain. Radicals on a previously inert polymer surface are created by application of chemical reactants, or by exposure to ionizing radiation or ultraviolet (UV) light, which is also used in the curing process for some polymer substrates.
UV light-based graft polymerization has already been demonstrated for applying surface coating to polymers, including polypropylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate) and polyethylene. However, each application requires a selected substrate and a selected monomer or group of monomers to yield the desired surface properties for the individual application, which is often determined empirically. Previous efforts have not effectively yielded definitive substrates, monomers, utilized cross-linking agents or chain transfer agents, that can be tailored for a broad variety of applications according to preselected properties of the material. For example, the substrate, monomer, and reaction conditions that produce a successful impermeable polymer graft for a rigid medical device will not yield acceptable results for a thin film substrate where transparency and gas permeability is required. In many applications, the polymer graft must be uniquely tailored to balance the requirements of the underlying application with the physical parameters produced by the graft itself In the example of an ocular lens, described in further detail below, the physical requirements for a polymer graft are completely different than those required for a hard surface coating. For example, the polymer graft for a contact lens must be transparent to visible light, permeable to oxygen and other gases that must pass through the polymer graft as well as the underlying lens material to reach the surface of the eye. Also, the polymer graft must be wettable so that a thin film of fluid can be maintained across the surface. The underlying substrate and the polymer graft must be flexible, tolerant to the thermal and pressure strains of a sterilization process, and must have a low friction coefficient. These requirements are substantially different than the requirements for a graft polymer used in a microdevice where extremely small volumes of biological material are processed, separated, and analyzed for diagnostic purposes. These polymer microdevices provide a lab-on-a-chip capability to produce a series of chemical reactions in a highly miniaturized format.
The field of polymer microdevices is uniquely interesting because those microdevices offer the ability to miniaturize entire laboratories into chip-sized devices that perform sophisticated biochemical reactions on an extremely small scale. Polymer-based microfluidic devices are rapidly gaining in popularity primarily due to their ease of fabrication, inexpensive costs, and increasing versatility. Becker, H.; Gartner, C. Electrophoresis 2000, 21, 12-26; Bruin, J. M. Electrophoresis 2000, 21, 3931-51; Quake, S. R.; Scherer, A. Science 2000, 290, 1536-40. These devices involve the use of microfluidics, a process whereby extremely small volumes of fluid are manipulated to perform analytical chemical reactions in extremely minute quantities. Also, these devices require highly exacting surface properties to separate compounds in a biological sample while also providing the capability to analyze the separated compounds. For surface treatment of microfluidic devices, most work has focused on using plasma-based surface modification or dynamic coating where materials are adsorbed on the walls of the device to alter the surface chemistry.
Polymer-based microdevices have also been fabricated from a variety of different polymers including polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polycarbonate, polystyrene, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). In particular PDMS-based devices can easily and inexpensively be fabricated by casting the polymer against a mold prior to cross linking. McDonald, J. C.; Duffy, D. C.; Anderson, J. R.; Chiu, D. T.; Wu, H.; Schueller, O. J. A.; Whitesides, G. M. Electrophoresis 2000, 21, 27-40. PDMS is durable and can readily seal either reversibly or irreversibly to a variety of substrates including PDMS itself, other polymers such as PMMA, and glass. Interest in the surface modification of polymeric substrate materials such as poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) has increased over the years along with the development of microfluidic devices. Becker, H.; Gartner, C. Electrophoresis 2000, 21, 12-26. Silicone rubbers including PDMS have successfully been modified by radiation-induced grafting. Once a master has been produced, multiple devices can be cast in PDMS quickly and easily even on a bench top. Bruin, supra; Duffy, D. C.; Schueller, O. J. A.; Brittain, S. T.; Whitesides, G. M. J. Micromech. Microeng. 1999, 9, 211-7. Another important characteristic of PDMS is its optical transparency at wavelengths >280 nm making it amenable to the use of laser-induced fluorescence detection.
Since the casting step for PDMS devices does not require access to a clean room, this methodology is accessible to a large number of investigators. The low Young's modulus and durability of PDMS make it an excellent choice for fabrication of pumps and valves. Hosokawa, K.; Maeda, R. J. Micromech. Microeng. 2000, 10, 415-20. PDMS has also been utilized in the “rapid prototyping” of devices designed for electrophoretic separations.
Despite its versatility, a number of characteristics have limited the use of PDMS in the fabrication of microfluidic devices. These limitations are most pertinent to the biological analyses for which these devices are predicted to be of great utility. Foremost among PDMS's disadvantages is its extreme hydrophobicity. This property makes wettability difficult, creating problems filling micron-sized channels with suitable aqueous buffers. Additionally, many analytes show significant adsorption to PDMS surfaces and some even penetrate into the polymer matrix itself. Unger, M. A.; Chou, H. P.; Thorsen, T.; Scherer, A.; Quake, S. R. Science 2000, 288, 113-6. This adsorption leads to sample loss, diminished resolution such as signal to noise ratio, and upper limitations on the size of separation chambers used in miniaturized analytical separations. Strong electroosmotic fluid flow (EOF) can occur in PDMS-devices, but the surface must be oxidized to support a significant EOF. EOF in the oxidized devices is unstable making reproducible eletrophoretic separations challenging. Because of these drawbacks, previous attempts have been made to tailor surface properties of polymers using both chemical and physical modifications. Duffy, D. C.; McDonald, J. C.; Schueller, O. J. A.; Whitesides, G. M. Anal. Chem. 1998, 70, 4974-84; Ocvirk, G.; Munroe, M.; Tang, T.; Oleschuk, R.; Westra, K.; Harrison, D. Electrophoresis 2000, 21, 107-15.
Recent descriptions of modifications of PDMS have been stimulated by its growing popularity in the manufacture of microfluidic devices for bioassays. Exposure of the PDMS surface to plasma oxidation renders the surface hydrophilic by ionization of silanol groups. This treatment improves wettability and supports a strong EOF for electrokinetic pumping provided the surface remains in contact with neutral or basic solutions. However, oxidized PDMS reverts to its hydrophobic character within a few hours after exposure to air. Dynamic coatings, for example, polyelectrolyte multilayers of poly(styrene sulfonate) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride), have been used to selectively coat microchannels for control and stabilization of EOF. A three-layer modification of biotinylated immunoglobulin G, neutravidin, and biotinylated dextran has been developed that considerably reduced adsorption of molecules to the channel walls while maintaining modest EOF. Linder, V.; Verpoorte, E.; Thormann, W.; de Rooji, N. F.; Sigrist, H. Anal. Chem. 2001, 73, 4181-9. Regnier and coworkers published a combination of oxidation and radical polymerization to modify PDMS surfaces with C18-silanes. Garbassi, F.; Morra, M.; Occhiello, E. Polymer Surfaces, 2nd ed.; John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1998; Chapters 2, 6, 7, 12. This combination gave the investigators efficient and reproducible separations of a variety of biomolecules. However, the separation of peptides and larger molecules remains problematic given the restrictions on microfluidic fluid flow and charge parameters in a polymer-based microdevice. Indeed, despite all of the most recent advances, no single method has shown to be superior for use in biological microdevices made from polymers. Of particular importance is the current inability to generate a wide variety of films that are permanent, are uniform in density, and feature selectively tailored physical parameters through the use of a low temperature process that is compatible with the polymer substrate. UV graft polymerization is highly attractive as a method for the surface modification of polymer substrates, microfluidic devices because the process has few steps, and causes little or no penetration into the bulk polymer. Chan, C. M., supra. However, in the case of PDMS an initial reaction with a photosensitizer was required before UV-grafting could be accomplished. Inoue, H.; Kohama, S. J. Appl. Polymer Sci. 1984, 29, 877-89.
This invention is compositions and methods for chemically treating polymer substrates to change their chemical or physical surface properties. The invention yields advantages in the material properties of polymers frequently used in medical devices such as implants, surgical devices, ocular lenses and in analytical devices, including polymer microdevices including particularly microfluidic devices used in analyses of biological samples. The invention enables improved performance or adds functionality to all of these applications by selected chemical surface modifications of a polymer substrate. The method works by graft polymerization of the surface of a substrate polymer device with a homogenous or heterologous population of monomers. In a preferred embodiment, the monomers are polymerized under ultraviolet light with a chain transfer agent, an oxygen scavenger, and triethylamine additive (simultaneous irradiation), resulting in a uniform coating that is covalently bonded to the surface of the substrate. The UV graft polymerization is performed by immersing the polymer substrate into an aqueous solution containing an oxygen scavenger, such as NaIO4 (0.2 to 1.0 mM), a chain transfer agent, such as benzyl alcohol (0.1% to 1.5%, wt.), triethylamine (TEA) (up to 0.8%, wt.), and the desired monomer or mixture of monomers (1% to 20% by weight). The substrate and solution are placed under an ultraviolet light source for 0.5 h to 10 h. In some embodiments, a cross-linking agent such as poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (DIPEG) (0 to 2%, wt.), is used to produce a hardened, impermeable graft layer and can be combined with the chain transfer agents, photo initiators, or oxygen scavengers.
The grafting techniques described herein are suitable for a wide variety of polymer substrates. The use of PDMS below is merely for illustrative purposes and is not limiting of the invention as a whole. The parameters for the polymer substrate merely require a surface that is accessible by light, a surface on which a free radical can be generated directly or indirectly by ultraviolet light, and which is chemically susceptible to attachment by the graft monomer. In most cases, the polymer substrate will have a carbon or oxygen from which the free radical is generated. (See
The procedures described below work for many different homogenous or heterologous monomer grafts and for many different bulk polymer substrates with little modification. Suitable monomers include, but are not limited to, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), monomethoxyl acrylate (PEG), hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate (HEMA), dimethylacrylamide (DMA). The resulting polymer surface can be highly functionalized according to the needs of the device, depending on the monomers chosen and the thickness of coating applied. Interfacial properties such as hydrophobicity, surface charge, and adsorption or adhesion affinity can be modified to suit the needs of the device. The method is simple, safe, low cost, reproducible, and easily scaled to large volume manufacturing.
Additionally, mixed monomers with and without cross-linking agents are applied to a polymer substrate to yield a coating capable of fast, high quality separations of biologically relevant molecules. The surface properties of polymerized coatings comprised of a single neutral monomer (PEG), a neutral and a negative monomer (PEG:AA), or a neutral, negative, and cross-linking monomer (PEG:AA:poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate) (DiPEG)) are evaluated by measuring the polymer graft density, the contact angle of a water droplet, and the electroosmotic mobility (μeo) of coated microchannels. To demonstrate the principal of the invention, several test analytes of biologic significance are utilized to evaluate the ability of the surfaces to efficiently separate analytes. The test set of peptides are substrates or products of kinases and phosphatases which are frequently used to assay the activity of these enzymes. Measurement of the theoretical plates and the reproducibility of the migration times and peak areas of analytes demonstrated the superiority of the cross-linked coatings compared to the other surveyed polymer coatings. Cross-linking the polymer coating on PDMS enhances the separations by decreasing analyte penetration into the coating and consequently decreasing analyte-PDMS interactions.
This invention enables the surface properties of the polymer substrate to be finely tuned by: (1) copolymerizing mixtures of different monomers onto the surface, (2) controlling the degree of cross-linking of the polymers on the surface, (3) controlling the graft density and charge density simultaneously, (4) varying the identity and/or concentration of the chain transfer agent to control the polymer chain length, (5) employing multiple levels of treatment one after the other. The surface properties of polymerized coatings composed of a single neutral monomer (PEG), a neutral and a negative monomer (PEG:AA), or a neutral, negative, and cross-linking monomer (PEG:AA:poly(ethylene glycol) (DiPEG)) are evaluated by measuring the polymer graft density, the contact angle of a water droplet, and the electroosmotic mobility (μeo) of coated microchannels. Several test analytes of biologic significance demonstrate the ability of the surfaces to efficiently separate analytes. The test set of peptides are substrates or products of kinases and phosphatases which are frequently used to assay the activity of these enzymes. Measurement of the theoretical plates and the reproducibility of the migration times and peak areas of analytes demonstrated a preference for the cross-linked coatings compared to the other surveyed polymer coatings. Cross-linking the polymer coating on PDMS is likely to enhance the separations by decreasing analyte penetration into the coating and consequently decreasing analyte-PDMS interactions.
The invention has tremendous value to the field of bioengineering and polymer engineering. Polymer devices, typically built for biomedical applications, have a great need for custom surface properties. Many such devices are designed to manipulate biological fluids and reagents to perform chemical or biochemical reactions in a chip-based format when the surface chemistry of the chip is critical to the performance of the device. This surface treatment can render a hydrophobic surface hydrophilic during the chip manufacturing to aid in fluid loading and handling. Surface charge can be modified to improve or diminish electro-osmotic flow, and improve electrophoresis separation. Adsorption affinity can be modified to prevent or enhance bimolecular adsorption and biofouling. Many other properties may be modified, depending on the choice of monomers used in the process. Since the process is compatible with photolithography, the properties may also be patterned for added functionality. For polymer microsystem devices, the procedure can be used to create surfaces that bond readily, reduce stiction, reduce or increase friction, protect the bulk, provide chemically active surfaces for chemical sensors, provide thin structural polymer materials, provide adhesive material, or provide optical cladding of desired refractive index.
The method described in this invention provides a means for permanently modifying the surface of polymers through covalent bonding and cross linking of the graft molecules to the surface. The resulting coating is of high density (controllable) and very uniform. The process is a one-step procedure that significantly simplifies the procedure.
The method enables a large variety of chemical properties, notably interfacial properties such as hydrophobicity, surface charge, and adhesion affinity of biomolecules, to be permanently, but selectively conveyed to a polymer surface. Therefore, the areas of graft polymerization onto a polymer substrate can be selectively controlled and localized depending on the intended application. For an ocular lens, the preferred embodiment is to create a substantially uniform polymer graft over the entirety of the polymer substrate, which is the basis component of the contact lens. In contrast, for a polymer-based fluidic microdevice, the surface treatments according to the present invention may be highly localized such that individual regions are created on the microdevice for fluid transport, charge separation, adsorption separation, or any other physical or biochemical parameter as desired. The method works the same way with a variety of monomers making it a very general purpose procedure for treating polymer devices. In particular, the ability to permanently modify the surface of a polymer microfluidic device is of great importance since most microfluidic devices require a modified surface in order to achieve high performance in applications such as lab-on-a-chip and analytical microdevices. Microfluidic devices made from many polymers can be coated without the need for exposure to high temperatures, vacuums, plasmas and oxidizers. The high level of control afforded by the process allows the manufacture of quality films of precise thickness with excellent uniformity, which is a crucial element for the fabrication of polymer microdevices. The permanent nature of the coating eliminates the need to perform dynamic coating in order to achieve high performance in microfluidic devices. Furthermore, this process is successfully producing surface treatments on polymers that are traditionally difficult to modify, such as poly(dimethylsiloxane) or silicone rubber.
As described below, the coatings applied to polymer biomedical devices can alter the surfaces in order to make them biocompatible, or of specific functionality as needed by the application. Examples of biomaterial applications include making polymer surfaces with specific charge (for electrophoresis chips), polymer surfaces with specific hydrophobicity (for lab-on-a-chip), polymer surfaces with limited biofouling (for biomedical devices), polymer surfaces with reduced friction (for catheters). In polymer engineering applications, the invention can be used to promote polymer surface adhesion (for polymer bonding or painting), to promote wettability (for environmental applications), to promote surface durability (for industrial applications). In integrated polymer microdevices, the invention may be used to grow thin polymer films (for surface micromachining applications), to grow bonding layers (for layer-to-layer bonding), to grow optical layers (for optical microdevices), and to grow dielectric layers (for electronic or microwave applications). Thus, the invention includes both the manufacturing process and the product having a graft polymer applied to substrate in any of bio-adhesives, sutures, surgical dressing, heart valve tubular devices, soft-tissue replacement materials for surgical reconstruction, drug-delivery implants, interocular and contact lenses, bone cement, joint reconstruction, tendons, blood bag, catheters, tubing, artificial lung/heart/kidney/pancreas delivery systems, polymer-based microdevices, particularly those relating to the biotech industry such as lab-on-a-chip, capillary electrophoresis chips, separation chips, biosensor, environmental sensors, biochemical reactors, sample preparation chips, bioarrays (DNA, antibody, protein), biochemical devices and immunochemical assay chips.
FIGS. 10A-B. Photographs of PDMS grafted with PEG:AA:DiPEG. (10A) Shows a PDMS slab grafted with PEG:AA:DiPEG at a ratio of 20:1:1 (10% total monomer concentration). The PDMS slab remains transparent and flexible. (10B) Shows a PDMS slab grafted with PEG:AA:DiPEG at a ratio of 20:1:4 (10% total monomer concentration). The PDMS slab is no longer transparent and has become twisted and stiff.
FIGS. 11A-D. Fluorescent images of the injection and separation of F-src and F-calc on a device grafted with cross-linked PEG:AA. The conditions are identical to that of
The following examples are particularly preferred embodiments of the present invention, including data demonstrating the proof of principal for specially tailored surface modifications whereby surface chemistries are selectively altered for a particular polymer substrate. As described elsewhere herein, a principal advantage of the invention is the ability to tailor the modification of the surface chemistry of a polymer substrate according to the intended use. Thus, the surface modification for different biomaterials will depend on the particular requirements of the selected application. For example, the desired physical parameters of a polymer surface applied to an intravenous medical catheter will differ from the ideal parameters for a contact lens, which in turn, will differ from the desired parameters for a fluidic microdevice for electrophoresis. The present invention enables one of ordinary skill in the art to tailor the physical parameters of the surface polymer according to desired value for parameters such as graft/charge density, hydrophobicity, surface charge, adhesion affinity, permeability, and friction coefficients. Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand, in accord with the following description, that modifications to the polymer substrate, the surface coatings, and process parameters, such as ultraviolet radiation exposure, selection of cross-linking agents, selection of chain transfer agents, and selection of time of exposure will yield different results in the graft polymerization process.
The following reagents are used in the methods described herein. Sylgard 184 is purchased from Dow Corning (Midland, Mich.) and silicon nitride-coated silicon wafers are obtained from Wafernet Inc. (San Jose, Calif.). Acrylic acid (AA), acrylamide (AM), dimethylacrylamide (DMA), 2-hydroxyl ethyl acrylate (HEA), poly(ethyleneglycol) monomethoxyl acrylate (PEG), and benzyl alcohol are all obtained from Aldrich, and used without further purification. All fluorescent reagents are available from Molecular Probes (Eugene, Oreg.). Peptides are synthesized by the Beckman Peptide and Nucleic Acid Facility at Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.) and labeled with fluorescein as described previously. Lee, C. L.; Linton, J.; Soughayer, J. S.; Sims, C. E.; Allbritton, N. L. Nature Biotech. 1999, 17, 759-62. For use in the electrophoresis examples described below, the peptide sequences are fluorescein-Arg-Phe-Ala-Arg-Lys-Gly-Ser-Leu-Arg-Gln-Lys-Asn-Val (F-PKC) and fluorescein-Ala-Glu-Glu-Glu-Ile-Tyr-Gly-Glu-Phe-Glu-Ala-Lys-Lys-Lys-Lys (F-src). House, C.; Kemp, B. E. Science 1987, 238, 1726-8; Nair, S. A.; Kim, M. H.; Warren, S. D.; Choi, S.; Songyang, Z.; Cantley, L. C. F-PKB (Fluorescein-GRPRAATFAEG) [22], PF-PKB (Fluorescein-GRPRAA(T-PO3)FAEG), F-calc ((Fluorescein-DLDVPIPGRFDRRVSVAAE) [Richey, T.; Iwata, H.; Oowaki, H.; Uchida, E.; Matsuda, S.; Ikada, Y. Biomaterials 2000, 21, 1057-65. Uchida, E.; Uyama, Y.; Ikada, Y. J. Polymer Sci.: Pt. A 1989, 27, 527-37], PF-calc (Fluorescein-DLDVPIPGRFDRRV(S—PO3)VAAE). All other reagents and materials are available from Fisher Scientific (Pittsburgh, Pa.).
Microfluidic channel patterns and the corresponding master are designed and fabricated as described previously. Ren, X., Bachman, M., Sims, C. E., Li, G. P., Allbritton, N. L. J. of Chromat. B. 2001, 762, 117-25. Sylgard 184 PDMS prepolymer is mixed thoroughly with its cross-linking catalyst at 10:1 (wt) and degassed by vacuum for 30 minutes. The polymer or polymer mixture is cast against the silicon mold and polymerized at 70° C. for 1 hour. After curing, the PDMS is peeled from the mold and holes (3.5 mm diameter) are punched into the polymer to create access ports and reservoirs. Reservoirs above the holes are created by gluing plastic cylinders (cut from pipette tips). The reservoir volume is approximately 50 μl. Flat PDMS substrates are obtained by casting the polymer mixture on a clean, flat surface. Final polymerization of the PDMS is performed by placing the pieces in a 65° C. oven overnight.
The micromolded PDMS is sealed against a flat, PDMS substrate. In some instances, the unmated PDMS halves are placed in an oxygen plasma for 55 s (50 W at 60 mTorr). When joined together the oxygen plasma-treated parts seal irreversibly. Alternatively, the two PDMS halves may be grafted with a polymer as described in the next section and then mated. Glass cover slips support the final PDMS device.
The surface graft polymerization process is performed as follows. Micromolded or flat PDMS films are immersed in an aqueous solution containing NaIO4 (0.5 mM), benzyl alcohol (0.5% by weight), and monomers at the indicated concentrations and ratios. The solution for immersion can also be a suitably organic solvent in which the monomers are miscable and assuming that the solvent is compatible with the polymer substrate on which the graft is placed. The benzyl alcohol is a preferred chain transfer agent that functions to terminate excessive polymerization in solution and to enhance the quality and physical parameters of the graft polymer. In an IO4 is an oxygen scavenger that prevents excessive free radical formation in the monomer solution. The immersed films are placed in a custom-built irradiator (200 W mercury lamp) for the times indicated. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the wavelength of the ultraviolet light is below 400 nm. The 200 W mercury lamp has a glass component that filters the spectrum of radiation to yield mostly ultraviolet light in the approximate range of 300 nm. The distance between the sample and the lamp is 5 cm. Uniform UV exposure is ensured by rotating the films under the UV source. The samples are then washed in distilled water at 80° C. under constant stirring for 24 h to remove adsorbed monomers and polymers.
To measure graft density of the dry PDMS films, they are placed under a vacuum at room temperature until the weight is stable. Dried PDMS films are weighed before and after surface grafting. The graft density is defined as the difference in the film weight before and after grafting divided by the total surface area of the film.
Infrared absorption is measured by total attenuated reflection (ATR-IR). ATR-IR spectra of PDMS films on a wedged germanium crystal are recorded using a single beam spectrometer (NICOLET MAGNA-IR 860 SPECTROMETER) equipped with a helium neon laser, a TGS (triglycine sulfate) detector, and a ZnSe reflection element. Spectra are recorded at 4 cm−1 resolution, and 4096 scans are collected per trace. A single-beam reference spectrum of a freshly cleaned germanium crystal is recorded before the measurements and used as the background spectrum. A water spectrum is also recorded, scaled empirically, and subtracted from the PDMS spectra to remove the water peaks in the region of 3500 cm−1.
Contact angles are measured on flat PDMS films with varying surface graft densities and with or without grafted polymer. A droplet of deionized water is placed on the air-side surface of a film at room temperature, and after 30 s the contact angle is measured using a contact angle goniometer (NRL-100, Rame-Hart). The average of five measurements is utilized for each droplet.
Conventional monitoring methods are used to measure μeo in the microfabricated channels. Ren, et al., supra. At least 3 measurements are performed on each device. A single straight channel 3 cm in length is used for the measurements. The channel's width at the bottom, middle, and top are 30, 60, and 75 μm. The center of the channel is 15 μm deep. To measure the stability of μeo after exposure to air, the channels are flushed with water, dried under a vacuum, and then exposed to air at room temperature. At the times indicated, the channels are filled with aqueous buffer and μeo is measured. After the measurement, the channels are flushed with water, dried under a vacuum, and again exposed to air at room temperature until the next measurement of μeo.
To modify the surface properties of PDMS devices a variety of monomers are UV-grafted onto the PDMS surface. With this method, attachment of polymers can be accomplished in a single step. The monomers are selected to be hydrophilic since this is an attribute of most surfaces resistant to protein adsorption (compared to hydrophobic surfaces) (19-21). The monomers, AA, AM, HEA, PEG, and DMA, are also selected based on their likely ease of attachment, past usage in biocompatible devices, and display of different functional groups. Ikada, Y. Biomaterials 1994, 15, 725-36; Belanger, M. C.; Marois, Y. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. (Appl. Biomater) 2001, 58, 467-77; Jagur-Grodzinski, J. Heterogeneous Modification of Polymers, John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1997; Chapters 7, 8. PDMS films are immersed in aqueous solutions containing the monomer and then irradiated with a mercury lamp. NaIO4 is included in the monomer solution to scavenge oxygen which could compete with the monomer for reaction with free radicals on the PDMS surface. Uchida, E.; Uyama, Y.; Ikada, Y. J. Appl. Polymer Sci. 1990, 41, 677-87. The ultraviolet lines of the mercury lamp provide the energy to create radicals on the surface of the PDMS (
The inclusion of benzyl alcohol in the monomer solution can substantially increase the efficiency of surface grafting. Richey, T.; Iwata, H.; Oowaki, H.; Uchida, E.; Matsuda, S.; Ikada, Y. Biomaterials 2000, 21, 1057-65. For the grafting of AA onto polyethylene, the efficiency of grafting is known to increase as the concentration of benzyl alcohol increased (Richey et al., supra), presumably because benzyl alcohol may act as a chain transfer agent during polymerization. Inclusion of benzyl alcohol facilitates chain termination which greatly diminishes the viscosity of the aqueous solution, enhancing diffusion of reactive monomer and polymer molecules to the PDMS surface. Addition of benzyl alcohol (10%) to the monomer/NaIO4 solution during UV exposure greatly increased the grafting efficiency onto PDMS for all five monomers (PEG, DMA, AA, AM, and HEA).
To determine the quantity of monomer grafted, the graft density is measured after exposure to ultraviolet irradiation for varying times (
The surface properties of grafted PDMS are measured to insure that the graft exhibits the desired surface properties for the selected application. To determine whether the appropriate chemical groups are present on the surface of the grafted PDMS, the ATR-FITR spectra of the surface is measured. HEA and PEG-grafted PDMS possessed absorption maxima at 1730 cm−1 which corresponds to the carbonyl adjacent to the ester group in the grafted polymers (
The contact angle measurement of a water droplet is frequently used as a measure of the hydrophobicity of a surface. To follow changes in the surface hydrophobicity of the PDMS during grafting, the contact angle of a water droplet is measured after varying exposure times to the UV light. The contact angle of unmodified PDMS is 109° consistent with its high hydrophobicity. For all monomers grafted, the contact angle diminished over time reaching a minimum at approximately 3.5 hours (
To determine how the grafted polymers influenced the adsorption of biologically relevant peptides on to the PDMS surface, two fluorescently tagged peptides are spotted onto the surface of PDMS films. Both peptides are substrates for a kinase, F-PKC for protein kinase C and F-src for src kinase. These peptides are frequently used in in vitro and in vivo assays for kinase activity, and similar substrate peptides have been employed to measure kinase activity using glass and polymer microfluidic devices. Native, oxidized, and grafted PDMS films are incubated with the peptides and then thoroughly washed. The fluorescence of the films is then imaged, and the degree of peptide adsorption quantitated from the residual fluorescence. The peptides which possessed a positive charge did not adsorb to the native PDMS or the grafted PDMS surfaces (see Table I below). In contrast the peptides remained on the surface of the oxidized PDMS even after extensive washing suggesting that the peptides are very tightly adsorbed to the surface.
*The films are grafted with 10% monomer for three hours.
As described in detail in Example 6, the use of grafted polymers in a microdevice enables electrophoretic separations of analytes. To determine how the surface grafted polymers influenced the adhesiveness of the two PDMS halves of a microdevice, the top and bottom portions of a device are grafted with the monomers. At all graft densities PEG- and HEA-coated PDMS readily sealed with other like-coated surfaces. AM and DMA-grafted surfaces sealed with like surfaces only at lower graft densities (<100 μg/cm2). This is most likely due to the rigidity of PDMS films with high AM or DMA-graft densities. All surfaces that did seal, sealed reversibly suggesting that the adhesiveness is due to a noncovalent interaction. The differential adhesiveness of the different surfaces may have been due to a number of other factors in addition to the PDMS flexibility, for example, the rotational mobility of the methyl and grafted polymers about the —Si—O— backbone of the PDMS at the surface and the properties of the grafted side chains themselves.
To determine how the grafted polymers altered electroosmotic fluid flow in microchannels, μeo is measured in channels grafted with varying densities of the monomers. As the graft density increased, μeo increased for all monomers tested (
A major difficulty with the use of oxidized-PDMS microchannels is the instability of μeo upon exposure of the devices to air. The decrease in μeo is thought to be due to the movement of hydrophobic groups to the PDMS surface either by reorientation of hydroxyl groups into the bulk and methyl groups to the surface, or the diffusion of low molecular weight PDMS from the bulk to the surface. The surfaces of other polymers can also be sufficiently dynamic so as to alter their properties in response to changes in the surrounding environment. For example, the surface of poly(hydroxyethylmethacrylate) films exposes methyl groups at polymer-air interfaces. Upon addition of water, however, the surfaces exhibit hydroxyl groups (instead of methyl groups) at the polymer-water interface. To determine the stability of the surfaces of the grafted microchannels, μeo is measured at varying times after exposure to air (
To determine whether the grafted surfaces are suitable for electrophoretic applications, a microfluidics device with a double “T” injector is constructed from PEG- and DMA-grafted PDMS as well as oxidized PDMS (
The measurable graft density and the presence of the appropriate chemical groups observed by ATR-IR illustrates the successful attachment a range of different monomers, including but not limited to AA, AM, HEA, DMA, and PEG to the surface of PDMS. For all these single species, grafting occurred only in the presence of benzyl alcohol which is thought to act as a chain transfer agent. All grafted surfaces exhibited a decrease in the contact angle of water compared to that of native PDMS. Consistent with the increased hydrophilic nature of the grafted surfaces, microchannels formed from the grafted PDMS are easily filled with aqueous solutions. At low graft densities (<100 μg/cm2), the PDMS films retained the flexibility and optical transparency of unmodified PDMS. These films also sealed reversibly so that devices constructed from them could be taken apart, cleaned, and resealed. μeo for the grafted microchannels is intermediate to that of native and oxidized PDMS suggesting that the surfaces possessed a greater charge density than native PDMS but less charge density than oxidized PDMS. At high graft densities (>100 μg/cm2), some of the films became less flexible and exhibited a loss of transparency. However μmeo reached a maximum at graft densities less than 60 μg/cm2 suggesting that full surface coverage had been attained. Thus graft densities greater than 60 μg/cm2 may only increase the depth of the polymer layer and not the extent of surface coverage. These higher graft densities may not impart any additional advantageous properties to the PDMS surfaces.
Compared to oxidized PDMS, the grafted PDMS exhibited substantially less adsorption of charged, test peptides. Also in contrast to oxidized PDMS, μeo of the grafted-PDMS devices is stable upon exposure of the channels to air. The decreased adsorption and increased surface stability of the grafted PDMS make these surfaces more suitable than oxidized PDMS for many electrophoretic applications. By combining UV-mediated grafting with the appropriate monomer, a large number of different surface properties are imparted to PDMS thereby greatly increasing the utility of PDMS in the construction of microfluidic devices.
As noted above, the physical parameters of a surface polymer graft may be altered to achieve selected properties in accord with the intended use of the substrate and monomer combination. For example, the use of a substrate combined with a graft comprised of mixed monomers, with and without cross-linking agents, develops fast, high quality separations of biologically relevant molecules on PDMS micro devices. In this example, the surface properties of polymerized coatings composed of a single neutral monomer (PEG), a neutral and a negative monomer (PEG:AA), or a neutral, negative, and cross-linking monomer (PEG:AA:poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate) (DiPEG)) were evaluated by measuring the polymer graft density, the contact angle of a water droplet, and electroosmotic mobility (μeo) of coated microchannels. Several test analytes of biologic significance were utilized to evaluate the ability of the surfaces to efficiently separate analytes. As in the Example above, the test set of peptides were substrates or products of kinases and phosphatases which are frequently used to assay the activity of these enzymes. Measurement of the theoretical plates and the reproducibility of the migration times and peak areas of analytes demonstrated the superiority of the cross-linked coatings compared to the other surveyed polymer coatings. Cross-linking the polymer coating on PDMS is likely to enhance the separations by decreasing analyte penetration into the coating and consequently decreasing analyte-PDMS interactions.
For electrophoretic injections in this embodiment of the invention, channels with a “cross” injector are used. The channels possessed curved sidewalls and are 15 micrometers deep at their center. The channel width at the bottom, middle, and top is 30, 50, and 80 μm, respectively. The length of the injection channel was 2 cm (between ii and iii of
The theoretical plates (N) are calculated from the equation:
where A is the peak area, h the peak height, and t the migration time.
In the Example above, microfluidic channels coated with PEG by UV grafting are shown to be suitable for the separation of two test peptides. To determine whether other analytes could be separated in these PEG-coated devices, PEG is grafted onto the top and bottom portions of a PDMS microdevice. The surface properties of the grafted PDMS (graft density and contact angle of a water droplet) are similar to that described above. The two halves of the PDMS device are sealed by manually pressing them together. In agreement with the example above, the μeo of the channels was greater than that of native PDMS but substantially less than that of oxidized PDMS (Table II).
To assess the separation capability of the PEG-grafted channels, peptides that were substrates or products of kinases or phosphatases were electrophoresed in microchannels grafted with PEG. These peptides are frequently used in in vivo and in vitro assays to measure the activity of kinases and phosphatases and consequently are of great interest to the biological research community. A mixture of a substrate for src kinase (F-src) and either a product of the phosphatase calcineurin (F-calc) or a substrate of protein kinase B (F-PKB) is loaded into the injection channel of a PEG-grafted device with microchannels in a “cross” design (
aShown are the average of the measurements ± their standard deviation. The electrophoretic conditions were identical to that of FIGS. 8A-8C.
bThe concentration of F-src was 1 μM while the concentration of F-calc was 2 μM.
cThe concentration of F-src was 1 μM while the concentration of F-calc was 1 μM.
dThe total concentration of monomer (weight of all monomers/weight of final solution) was 10%.
Since the homogenous PEG-grafted microchannels do not yield acceptable separations of the test peptides, the PDMS halves of a microchannel are grafted with a mixture of PEG and AA. In addition to altering the separation properties, the additional AA in the composition increases the EOF permitting F-calc to be injected into the separation channel. The two halves of a PDMS device are grafted with a mixture of PEG and AA. The graft density of the surface is nearly the same as that when PEG was grafted alone (Table II). In addition the contact angle of a water droplet on the PEG:AA-grafted surface was only slightly decreased compared to that of a PEG grafted surface (Table II). Since PEG is very hydrophilic, the additional AA does not substantially alter the hydrophilicity of the surface. The two halves of the PEG:AA grafted surface are easily sealed by manual pressure. In contrast to the graft density and contact angle, the magnitude of μeo is substantially increased by the addition of the AA to the surface (Table II). AA is negatively charged at pH 7.0 (the pH of the buffers used for μeo measurement). Thus, the AA contributes substantial charge compared to that from the PEG which is not ionized at pH 7.0.
A mixture of F-src and F-PKB is loaded into the injection channel and a plug pinched off into the separation channel of a device grafted with a mixture of PEG and AA. The two analytes still are not completely resolved although the separation was improved compared to that in a channel grafted only with PEG (
Characterization of PDMS surfaces grafted with PEG, AA, and DiPEG. Since the PDMS surfaces grafted with PEG and AA exhibited visible analyte absorption and do not yield acceptable separations, the analytes appear to interact with the underlying PDMS due to incomplete polymer coverage or an inability of the small analytes to migrate through the polymer strands. Either situation enables the analytes to interact with and potentially adsorb onto the PDMS. The cross-linking of surface-attached polymers with a variety of agents has been shown to improve coverage of surfaces and has been used extensively to improve electrophoretic separations. Horvath et al., Electrophoresis, 2001, 22, 644-655. Cross-linking is also widely used to “harden” polymer coatings reducing the ability of other molecules to penetrate into the coating. Stevens, M. P., Polymer Chemistry, 3d Ed., Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. For this reason the grafted polymers were cross-linked with poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (DiPEG) to determine whether higher graft densities or better coverage of the PDMS could be attained. DiPEG is added to the PEG:AA mixture prior to UV grafting. At a constant concentration of AA and PEG, the graft density increases as the concentration of DiPEG was increased (
To determine how cross-linking the polymer strands impacts other surface properties, the contact angle of a water droplet, sealing properties, and μeo of the cross-linked coatings are assessed. The contact angle of a water droplet on a flat slab of PDMS grafted with PEG:AA:DiPEG is the same as that for a surface grafted with only PEG:AA (Table II). Since the PEG:AA coating is already quite hydrophilic, cross-linking the polymers did not alter the contact angle. When the ratio of DiPEG/PEG in the grafting mixture is less than 10%, the grafted PDMS seals well with like surfaces when manually compressed together. As the ratio of DiPEG/PEG increases above 10%, a surface seal with like surfaces becomes increasingly more difficult due to the increasing hardness and twisting of the surface. To determine how the cross-linked coating influenced EOF, two PDMS halves of a microchannel are grafted with PEG:AA:DiPEG with the DiPEG/PEG ratio at 5%. After sealing the two halves, μeo is measured (Table II). μeo increases by over 150% compared to that of a microchannel grafted with only PEG:AA despite a lower absolute AA concentration in the PEG:AA:DiPEG grafting mixture since the total monomer concentration is maintained constant rather than the concentration of any one monomer (Table II). Referring to the following equation, μeo=εζη where [epsilon] is the dielectric constant, [zeta] is the zeta potential of the liquid-solid interface, and [nu] is the viscosity of the solution near the solid surface. The cross-linked PEG:AA forms a nearly solid surface. [Zeta] arises largely from the interface between the cross-linked PEG:AA and the buffer solution. [Nu] is then dominated by the viscosity of the buffer solution in the capillary. In contrast, the linear strands of PEG:AA will form a viscous solution near the PDMS surface. The [zeta] potential then originates largely from the interface of the PDMS surface and the adjacent viscous PEG:AA solution. [Nu] is now dominated by the viscosity of the PEG:AA layer and acts to greatly diminish the EOF.
To determine whether cross-linking with DIPEG improved the separation of peptides, F-src and F-PKB are loaded into the injection channel of a device grafted with DiPEG, PEG, and AA. A plug of F-src and F-PKB is loaded from the injection channel into the separation channel and electrophoresed. F-src and F-PKB now appeared as two distinct peaks (
To determine how fast the separation of F-src and F-calc might occur and whether the analytes still visibly adsorbed to the coated surfaces, the analyte plug is imaged as it was pinched from the injection channel (
To determine whether greater numbers of peptides might also be separable in the channels with the cross-linked coatings, five peptides (F-src, F-PKB, PF-PKB, F-calc, PF-calc) are co-mixed, loaded, and electrophoresed in a device grafted with PEG:AA:DiPEG. All 5 peptides now appear as distinct peaks on the electropherogram (
The ability to tailor the surface properties of PDMS microfluidic devices for electrophoretic applications is provided by grafting mixtures of monomers onto the surface. Three different monomers (PEG, AA, and DiPEG) produce three different classes of grafted surfaces (single, mixed, and cross-linked mixed monomer). Each coating exhibits unique surface properties attributable to the chemical properties of the monomers. For the test analytes the cross-linked, mixed monomer-grafted surfaces yield superior separations. The EOF generated by the cross-linked coatings is also considerably higher than that of similar non cross-linked coatings. The superior separations and higher μeo may both result from the “hardening” of the coating by the cross-linker with decreased penetration of analytes, buffer ions, and water into the coating. The theoretical plates/cm (4800-7400 plates/cm) are superior to that attained for other coatings on PDMS and equivalent to the known best efficiencies on PDMS. Assets of these grafted coatings are the covalent linkage to the PDMS surface and the single reaction step. In addition the coating attributes are easily modified and optimized for different analytes by altering the identities and titrating the concentrations of the monomers.
As described above, the present invention provides a polymer graft that is tailored to provide desired surface properties based in a biomaterial based on the intended use. For ocular lenses, the important parameters are similar to those that are currently recognized for conventional contact lenses, but for which inherent physical properties of the commonly used polymers limit the ability to satisfy all of the desired parameters. These materials must be transparent to visual light to allow the wearer to see through the lens, the materials must be flexible and permeable to oxygen to maintain the health of the eye when the lens is worn. Depending on the nature of the substrate polymer, the materials may also have to contain a high water content to facilitate gas transport. Finally, the materials must be biocompatible stable when stood in solution, and must have an extremely low coefficient of friction.
Contact lenses are often formed from cross linking hydrophilic derivatives of vinylic, acrylic, or methacrylic polymers which often have a degree of cross-linking to provide structural integrity. The materials used to manufacture a lens of this invention include all of the commonly known monomers for the production of soft contact lens material including methacrylic acid, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), and other compounds known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, the manufacturing process for the polymer substrate, in this case the lens blank, is the same as for conventional lenses. Typically, such lens blanks are produced in molds shaped to conform to the surface of the eye. The monomer mixture used to form the substrate is inserted into a mold and heated to between approximately 60° C. and 120° C. The resulting lens blank is cured under an ultraviolet light for between approximately 5 to 20 minutes and preferably approximately 5 to 10 minutes. The curing process may be conducted under a nitrogen gas blanket for all or a portion of this time interval. The lens blank may be subjected to thermal post-curing at elevated temperature levels and may be separately hydrated and polished according to the specifications for the individual polymer used to form the blank. The specific contact lens compositions are based on known polymers compatible for use as contact lenses. The disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,314,960, 5,270,415 and 4,990,561 are incorporated herein by reference.
The graft polymer of the present invention is ideal because the oxygen permeability of the underlying substrate is maintained. The requirement for oxygen permeability is necessary to supply oxygen to the tissue of the eye and to defend against bacterial infection. Any material that acts as a barrier to oxygen transport to the anterior ocular surface is not suitable as a substrate for the contact lens embodiment of the present invention. Typically, an average oxygenation level of at least 10 percent (equivalent oxygen percentage) is necessary for an adequate polymer substrate. The measurement of oxygen transport across a polymer membrane is easily measured by those of ordinary skill in the art and depends both upon the inherent oxygen permeability of the polymer substrate material, as well as the lens thickness and the ambient conditions. In traditional soft lens type ocular contact lenses, the polymer materials have a substantial water content that is relied upon to transport oxygen through the lens, by diffusion of the oxygen gas through the water phase of the material. More recently, highly gas permeable polymers have been developed that have the ability to pass oxygen gas through the polymer phase without the requirement for a high degree of hydration of the polymer itself. In either case, the graft polymer of the present invention is suitable as a coating for the lens blank substrate.
Selection of materials that do not contain a high water content may be preferred in some applications because the hydration reaction is thermodynamically reversible and soft contact lenses are known to loose hydration and exhibit less ideal surface chemistry properties over time. Generally speaking, polymer substrates having a high water content must be manufactured at a higher thickness than a low water counterpart to avoid loss of hydration of the material. The most modern materials are either water containing soft polymer films known as “hydrogels” or non water containing gas permeable polymers. The hydrogel lenses exist in two forms, the traditional typically acrylic polymers and polymer substrates formed from silicon hydrogels. As noted above, the materials are either homopolymers or copolymers and may contain varying degrees of cross linking agents to provide strength and structural integrity of the lens material. Suitable hydrogel materials include polyHEMA (poly-2-hydroxyethyl-methacrylate) and may have surface modification techniques employed to increase the water content.
Silicon-containing materials are a relatively recent development and offer exceptional oxygen permeability and structural durability. However, fluid is typically unable to flow across the lens materials, i.e., these materials exhibit poor wettability, and result in frequent adhesion of the lens to the ocular surface. Moreover, these lens surfaces are typically hydrophobic and exhibit lipid and protein deposition across the surface resulting from ordinary lipid and protein molecules present in the tears. Application of the graft polymer of the present invention decreases the coefficient of friction and provides excellent wettability that is superior to the inherent property of the underlying substrate polymer.
As is apparent from the foregoing, no single material provides an ideal solution for selecting the physical and chemical properties of the substrate polymer for the contact lens blank. In one technique, two different materials are combined to attempt to gain the positive properties of each. However, the material can separate into different phases and lose transparency when manufactured into a contact lens. Moreover, the techniques for synthesizing such compounds are extremely complex. Attempts to overcome the inherently hydrophobic nature of some materials include surface bombardment techniques and the exposure to gas plasma to attempt to alter the surface of the silicon polymer. In hydrogels, the wettability requires a biocompatible surface to be deposited on the lens to ensure adequate freedom from friction between the lens and the eye. In some cases, the patient provides a suitable layer through ordinary wear, but this phenomenon cannot be relied upon from patient to patient.
The attachment of the graft polymer as described above is achieved by incorporating the graft deposition process into the lens manufacturing step. Thus, the immersion of the contact lens into a graft polymer solution is achieved to supply the graft monomer in a uniform layer on the lens substrate. As described above, the grafted contact lens is subjected to 5 to 10 minutes of ultraviolet light with a high watt mercury lamp. To optimize the manufacturing procedure, the wattage of the mercury lamp can be increased to decrease the length of exposure time, as long as the desired wavelengths of approximately 300 nm are maintained. Also, the orientation of the lamp and the concentration of the monomer in solution can be adjusted to optimize the process. While the above described process is suitable for contact lenses of the “soft” type commonly used, the polymer grafting aspect of the invention can be applied to lenses formed of rigid polymer substrates for extra ocular use as well as intraocular implants and other ocular prostheses. The graft polymer of the present invention, when applied to an intraocular lens, may be homogenous or heterologous population of monomers as described above. In a particularly preferred embodiment, approximately 10 percent polyethylene glycol (PEG) was fixed to a hydrogel-based lens. The lens substrates are immersed and circulated in a bath of PEG monomer as described previously for between 30 and 90 minutes at ambient temperature or at an elevated temperature compatible with the underlying lens substrate. Depending on the chemical composition of the polymer substrate, the graft polymer may be modified to adjust the thickness or density of the graft polymer in order to achieve a desired coefficient of friction. Generally, the process parameters can be altered, once the substrate polymer is chosen and a graft polymer composition determined, to reduce the coefficient of friction to the lowest possible value consistent with maintaining the transparency, permeability, and flexibility of the lens.
The graft polymer of the present invention provides a low-friction coating layer that increases the performance of all of the standard materials used in contact lenses. As noted above, the selection of monomers and treatment conditions can be tailored to produce a polymer film that is highly flexible and permeable to oxygen gas. Thus, the advantages of both a high water content polymer and a highly gas-permeable polymer are maintained and enhanced using the polymers of the present invention. In use, the invention is comprised of a contact lens substrate being formed of any conventional material to which is applied a surface polymer graft applied by exposure to ultraviolet radiation according to the techniques described above. The contact lenses of the invention are distinguished from conventional lenses by the attachment of a surface polymer graft that is discreet from the lens material and which imparts a separate set of surface parameters to the lens itself. The surface graft polymers of the present invention can be applied to either or both sides of a contact lens by ordinary manufacturing techniques. Ideally, the length of ultraviolet light exposure required to deposit the surface graft is adjusted to be compatible with the use of a curing step, when necessary, in the lens manufacturing process.
Miniaturization of biochemical analytical systems, employing microfluidic processing techniques and other small scale manufacturing techniques used in the microelectronics industry, enable the development devices that perform chemical and biochemical reactions in a miniaturized format typically referred to as “lab-on-a-chip” technology. Application of microfluidics technology embodied in the form of analytical devices has many attractive features for sample testing. Advantages of these systems include greatly increased throughput and reduced costs, in addition to low consumption of both sample and reagents and system portability. With these devices, referred to herein as polymer microdevices, sample preparation, processing, and analysis is conducted within microfluidic-based devices that direct fluids through a network of interconnecting microchannels of capillary dimensions, perform separation functions, detection functions, and others on a polymer substrate having grafts of the present invention applied to selected portions thereof.
Microfluidic devices provide fluidic networks in which biochemical reactions, sample injections and separation of reaction products are performed rapidly and reproducibly. The application of voltage to conductive fluids within these channels leads to electroosmotic and/or electrophoretic pumping, providing both mass transport and separation of components within the sample. In these microfluidic devices, fluid flow and reagent mixing is achieved using electroosmotic and electrophoretic transport phenomena. Fluid transport is typically controlled by regulating the applied potentials at the terminus of each channel of the microfluidic device. Within the channel network, cross intersections and mixing intersections are used for directing and dispensing fluids with high volumetric reproducibility. The mixing intersection can be used to quantitatively control the combination of two fluid samples by selective alteration of the electric potential across the device. Also, channels may have fluid pressure imparted to control fluid flow and the combination of EOF and fluid pressure may be used.
Capillary-based separations are widely used for analysis of a variety of analyte species. Numerous subtechniques, all based on electrokinetic-driven separations, have been developed. Capillary electrophoresis is one of the more popular of these techniques and can be considered to encompass a number of related separation techniques, including electrophoresis.
In some instances a prerequisite for conducting assays on microfluidic devices is the ability to transport large proteins (positively and negatively charged), substrates, cofactors and inhibitors or test compounds. Electroosmotic pumping has to be used to transport reagents and samples. Therefore, control of the electroosmotic flow (EOF), surface charge of the polymer substrate and capillary wall chemistry is critical to the success of a microfluidic device.
Surface modifications of the polymer substrates of polymer microdevices has been an area of active research since the introduction of such devices because commonly used solutions and analytes, especially proteins, undergo adsorption onto the polymer substrate itself. The interaction of analytes with the polymer material leads to the inability to effectively separate and measure analytes in solution. The adsorption of proteins on the polymer surface is a common problem in the analysis of proteins by electrophoresis in microdevices. Although buffer additives, non-covalent coating and covalent coating have been reported to decrease protein adsorption on some surfaces, protein grafts with UV-based techniques have not been applied to microdevices.
The methods and devices of the present invention include a UV-based graft polymers to a polymer substrate in a microdevice to provide more efficient manufacturing, improved flow, and greatly enhanced separation of analytes in a microfluidic device.
The polymer compositions, microfluidic devices and methods of analysis and manufacture enabled by the present invention do not suffer the drawbacks of known methods and materials and are inexpensive, practical, and easy to use. One of the advantages of the methods and compositions of the present invention is that the surface properties of a polymer substrate can be tailored so that the reagents and products of any biochemical reaction, namely, negatively charged, neutral and positively charged products, are readily transported, separated and analyzed in a microfluidic device. The graft polymer may increase or decrease hydrophobicity or hydrophillicity at selected portions of the device. Also, at least two discrete graft polymers may be applied to the surface of the device to impart discrete surface chemistries to different portions of the substrate surface.
As mentioned above, the present method involves controlling the direction and transport of a material by selective polymer grafts onto a polymer substrate. The substrate may also include a reagent, such as a ligand or receptor, which is synthetic or natural, antigenic or haptenic, a single compound or plurality of compounds. The material may be a test compound from a combinatorial library, a pharmacophore from an existing library, and the like. The low molecular weight ligands include small molecules, hormones, co-factors, metabolites, and the like. Higher molecular weight ligands generally have a molecular weight of at least about 5,000, more usually at least about 10,000, and include, for example poly(amino acids) such as proteins, polynucleotides, immunoglobulins, enzymes, and binding pair members. Polynucleotides include RNA, RNAi, DNA, cDNA, polynucleotide duplexes, amplicons, binding complexes, etc. The analyte may also include any of these compounds for analysis in the device.
Electrophoresis generally involves separation of components in a liquid by application of electricity to a sample in a medium. Various forms of electrophoresis include, by way of example and not limitation, free zone electrophoresis, gel electrophoresis, and capillary zone electrophoresis.
Polymer microdevices may also contain interconnected reservoirs and capillary-size channels configured with a plurality of branches through which fluids may be manipulated and processed. A reservoir structure is an unfilled space that may contain a fluid such as buffer, electrolyte, sample or reagent in a discrete component for use in the function of the device. Reservoirs may be at a terminus of a capillary channel. The reservoir may allow rinse or mixing functions and generally are connected by the channels to produce fluid communication.
Sample processing involves fluid transport, sample analytical reactions and detection within the reservoirs and channels. Sample and fluid transport may also involve reagent mixing, reaction/incubation, separations and sample detection and analyses. The thickness at the surface graft polymer is adjustable to be less than the depth at a channel in the microdevice.
The sample usually contains one or more materials of interest, such as differentially charged chemical species. Typical sources for mammalian biological samples include body fluids, serum or plasma, ascites, cells and cell extracts etc. Other sources of samples are aqueous or water soluble solutions of natural or synthetic compounds. Sample volumes typically range from about 1 to about 1,000 nanoliters, and usually between about 10 and about 100 nanoliters. The microdevices of the present invention also include a detection system to qualitatively detect, or quantitatively, measure the reactions carried out in the device. Chemical entities capable of being detected include spectrophotometric, chemiluminescent, electrochemical or radiochemically active compounds. The reporter molecule can be capable of conjugation to another molecule, such as the members of a binding pair. Reporters can be directly detected or indirectly detected through a production of a signal. Suitable candidates are a catalyst, dye, fluorophone, chemiluminescent molecule, or other compounds used in ordinary biochemical reactions detection. The surface of the polymer substrate that contacts any situation or analyte within a microfluidic device, may be tailored to achieve any of the objectives cited previously. For example, the microfluidic channels may be treated with surface graft polymers to facilitate flow from one region of the microdevice to another, with or without achieving mixture, separation, or analysis during the transport. Preferably, distinct regions of the microdevice are grafted with surface polymers to facilitate peptide separation, cell separation, or bioanalytical assays to qualitatively or quantitatively measure analytes in a sample based on their differential reactivity with the surface coatings. Thus, the polymer microdevices of the present invention contain areas where two or more surface graft polymers have been applied to facilitate different fluid transfer properties, different surface adsorption properties, or other separation parameters dictated by the individual properties of a solution or analyte. In a particularly preferred embodiment, increased separation capabilities for polypeptides and complete proteins are achieved by surface grafts of polymers onto an underlying polymer substrate that forms the body of the microdevice. The surface graft polymer exhibits separation capabilities for a peptide analyte of interest by altering the charge or adsorption properties across a channel where the analyte is caused to flow. Examples of peptide separation on monomer substrates are provided above and may be based on charge or mass separation interactions occurring between the analyte and the surface of the polymer.
Thus, in addition to control of adsorption parameters, the combination of the surface graft of the invention with other assay components can provide significant optimization to an assay protocol by controlling fluid flow, affinity of analytes for substrate, and control of the charged characteristics of the substrate polymer. For example, by reducing a high positive charge on a monomer species, analyte separation can be achieved through selective application of a negative charge across a polymer graft. Essentially, any surface charge and adsorption parameters can be tailored to an individual application by selection of the monomer, or combination of monomers used to form the surface graft as described previously. The surface graft components can be integrated into any of the fundamental structural components of a microfluidic device. The fundamental structural components of a microfluidic device include at least one flowpath, a reservoir and an electrode connected to a reservoir. The establishment of electrical potentials across the flowpath induces fluid flow. The device also typically has a detection zone for the detection of signal produced during the assay using any of these signal detection moieties described above. Obviously, the device may have multiple detection zones and the zones may have dedicated detectors as well as an exitation source such as a fluorescent or visible light beam that is integral to the microdevice or is separately integrated into a processor or reader.
Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiment has been set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following invention and its various embodiments.
The invention and its various embodiments are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptionally equivalent, what can be obviously substituted and also what essentially incorporates the essential idea of the invention. All publications, patents and references cited herein are specifically incorporated by reference in their entirety.
This invention was made in part from government support under Grant Nos. CA78858 and RR/CA114892, National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States. The U.S. Government may have certain rights in this invention.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US03/15192 | 5/13/2003 | WO | 10/14/2004 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60380231 | May 2002 | US |
