AVS 50th International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Tuesday Sessions
       Session BI-TuP

Paper BI-TuP7
Attachment of Blood Proteins to Chitosan Surfaces

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 5:30 pm, Room Hall A-C

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: D.W. Thompsons, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Authors: D.W. Thompsons, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
W.H. Nosal, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
S. Sarkar, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
A. Subramanian, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
J.A. Woollam, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Correspondent: Click to Email
Chitosan is a biomaterial of interest because of the potential to modify its amine groups to control its interactions with surfaces. Though chitosan itself is thrombogenic, such modifications may lead to a surface with enhanced biocompatibility. In this work we use spectroscopic ellipsometry to monitor the attachment of three blood proteins (albumin, IgG, and fibrinogen) to a spin-cast chitosan surface in phosphate-buffered saline solution. The moisture-induced swelling of the chitosan film is characterized, and optical constants for chitosan and the proteins are determined independently for use in modelling the time-dependent data. Ex-situ infrared ellipsometry is used to characterize the chemical nature of the protein attachment and compare chitosan films with varying degrees of deacetylation. Material anisotropy due to preferred molecule orientation is apparent from ellipsometry.