Polymer brush coatings of poly(ethylene glycol) are considered the gold standard for nonfouling surfaces, but nevertheless, a few bacteria manage to attach and initiate biofilm formation on these coatings. To achieve robust resistance against bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation, grafting density plays a critical role and we therefore investigated the antifouling properties of the poly(L-lysine)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLL-g-PEG) coating produced by the recently developed temperature-induced polyelectrolyte (TIP) grafting technique.
The PLL-g-PEG coatings with higher density resulted in complete absence of bacterial colonization from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermis, whereas the conventional PLL-g-PEG coatings only resisted colonization by P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, but not S. epidermidis. Colonization patterns were also reflected in single-cell adhesion forces measured for each strain and toward titanium and the two types of PLL-g-PEG coatings.
We were intrigued by the strain-dependent results in adhesion to conventional PLL-g-PEG, and investigated if the difference in adhesion mechanism between the three strains could explain the result. We measured the adsorption of peptides, polysaccharides and DNA to these coatings, as they represent bacterial adhesins with very different properties. While protein adsorption was minimized, we found considerable adsorption of polysaccharides, and exposure to DNA resulted in complete desorption of the conventional coating. These results explain why S. epidermidis, which produces polysaccharides and extracellular DNA, could successfully colonize the conventional PLL-g-PEG coatings. The ability of high-density PLL-g-PEG to resist polysaccharides, DNA, and bacterial adhesion of all strains is thus highly encouraging for future developments of universal antifouling coatings.