Immobilization of Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence in sugar-containing copolymer for culturing fibroblast cells

The peptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) was immobilized through their amino terminus to ends of a sugar beating copolymer, producing a functional hybrid copolymer. Poly(N-p-vinylbenzyl-D-maltonamide-co-6-(p-vinylbenzamido)-hexanoic acid-g-GRGDS) [p(VMA-co-VBGRGDS)] promoted the attachment and growth of NIH fibroblast cells. The interaction between fibroblast cells and p(VMA-co-VBGRGDS) copolymer resulted in effective cell attachment, proliferation, and morphological changes by introduction of a GRGDS sequence. Moreover, when pretreated with soluble RGD monomer, attachment of fibroblast cells was suppressed approximately 50% from that of the p(VMA-co-VBGRGDS) surface.