Author(s)

Kazuo Sugiyama, Nobuyuki Tanigawa, Kohei Shiraishi

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Amphiphilic block copolymers poly(LysAA-b-DMS) consisting of a hydrophilic poly(N-α-acrylamide-L-lysine) [poly(LysAA)] segment with different molecular weights and a hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) segment were prepared as follows. The precursor copolymer poly(Boc-LysAA-OtBu-b-PDMS) was obtained from radical polymerization of N-α-acrylamide-N-ε-tert-butoxycarbonyl-L-lysine-tert-butylester (Boc-LysAA-OtBu) initiated with 4,4’-azobis(polydimethylsiloxane 4-cyanopentanoate) (azo-PDMS) with the molecular weight of PDMS Mw = 4.3 × 10³ in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) as a chain-transfer agent. Removal of the protecting groups of the precursor copolymer was carried out in 80% trifluoroacetic acid aqueous solution to give poly(LysAA-b-DMS)-1-3. The weight average molecular weight of poly(LysAA-b-DMS)-1-3 was Mw = 1.02 × 10⁴ – 2.52 × 10⁴. From the 1H-NMR and fluorescence spectra measurements, poly(LysAA-b-DMS)-1-3 was determined to self-organize and form core-shell micelles in water. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) increased to 1000 - 4000 mg·L^–1 with increasing molar ratio of the poly(LysAA) segment from 0.42 to 0.65. From morphological analysis with a scanning probe microscope (SPM), poly(LysAA-b-DMS) has microphase-separated structures made up of hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions with the domain size ranging from several tens to several hundreds of nanometers. Inhibition of thrombin activity of poly(LysAA-b-DMS) was evaluated from the Michaelis constant (K_M) and catalytic activity (kcat) for the enzymatic reaction of thrombin and synthetic substrate S-2238 in the presence of poly(LysAA-b-DMS). The K_M and kcat were 0.10 - 0.11 mM and 4.04 × 10⁵ – 4.26 × 10⁵ min^–1, respectively. Fibrinolytic activity was also verified from the transformation of plasminogen to plasmin by tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) using synthetic substrate S-2251 in the presence of poly(LysAA-b-DMS). The K_M and kcat were 0.07 mM and 5.73 × 10⁶ –5.95 × 10⁶ min^–1, respectively.

Poly(N-α-acrylamide-L-lysine), Polydimethylsiloxane, Block Copolymer, Molecular Assembly, Blood Compatibility, S-2238/S-2251, Biomedical Polymer Material

K. Sugiyama, N. Tanigawa and K. Shiraishi, "Blood Compatibility of Amphiphilic Poly(N-α-acrylamide-L-lysine-b-dimethylsiloxane) Block Copolymers," Journal of Biomaterials and Nanobiotechnology, Vol. 2 No. 4, 2011, pp. 337-346. doi: 10.4236/jbnb.2011.24042.