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Interaction of Poly(L-Lysine)-g-Poly(Ethylene Glycol) with Supported Phospholipid Bilayers

Fernanda F. Rossetti ^*, Ilya Reviakine , Gábor Csúcs ^* , Fabiano Assi ^*, János Vörös ^* and Marcus Textor ^*

^* Bio Interface Group, Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology, Department of Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas; and Bio Micro Metrics Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Process Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Marcus Textor, ETH Zürich, Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology, Wagistrasse 2, CH-8952 Schlieren, Switzerland. E-mail: marcus.textor{at}mat.ethz.ch.

Interactions between the graft copolymer poly(L-lysine)-g-poly(ethylene glycol), PLL-g-PEG, and two kinds of surface-supported lipidic systems (supported phospholipid bilayers and supported vesicular layers) were investigated by a combination of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. It was found that the application of the copolymer to zwitterionic or negatively charged supported bilayers in a buffer of low ionic strength led to their decomposition, with the resulting formation of free copolymer–lipid complexes. The same copolymer had no destructive effect on a supported vesicular layer made up of vesicles of identical composition. A comparison between poly(L-lysine), which did not induce decomposition of supported bilayers, and PLL-g-PEG copolymers with various amounts of PEG side chains per backbone lysine unit, suggested that steric repulsion between the PEG chains that developed upon adsorption of the polymer to the nearly planar surface of a supported phospholipid bilayer (SPB) was one of the factors responsible for the destruction of the SPBs by the copolymer. Other factors included the ionic strength of the buffer used and the quality of the bilayers, pointing toward the important role defects present in the SPBs play in the decomposition process.

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