Improving hydrophilicity and protein resistance of silicone hydrogel by plasma induced graft polymerization of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine

Abstract

Surface properties of silicone hydrogels used as soft contact lenses play an important role in biocompatibility, conformability and deposition of protein. In this report, the surface hydrophilicity and protein deposition resistance of silicone hydrogel were modified using an atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma (APGDP) induced graft polymerization of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphoryl choline (MPC). Silicone hydrogel was treated with plasma and exposed to air to form oxide and hydroperoxides at the surface, which initiated surface graft polymerization of MPC. Elemental composition and structure at the surface of silicone hydrogel were characterizedthrough ATR-FTIR and XPS. The data of ATR-FTIR and XPS analyses revealed that MPC was grafted onto the surface of silicone hydrogel. Contact angle measurement was used to evaluate the hydrophilic property of the silicone hydrogel. The MPC grafted silicone hydrogel has the contact angle about 55°when MPC solution with the concentration 10 wt% is applied for graft polymerization. The result showed that graft polymerzation of MPC improvedthe hydrophilicity of silicone hydrogel efficiently. Bovine serum albumin(BSA) was used as a model to investigate protein deposition resistance ofthe modified silicone hydrogel. The data obtained by bicinchoninic acid assay revealed that the grafted silicone hydrogels had a significant enhancement of protein resistance.