Mucin coating on hydrophobic polymer materials

In this work, the adsorption isotherm and kinetics of bovine submaxillary gland mucin (BSM) onto a hydrophobic polystyrene surface were studied by the solution depletion method, in which mucin surface concentrations were analyzed by amino acid analysis. Using a Langmuir adsorption model and non-linear curve fitting, kinetics parameters, k(on) and k(off), were determined. The coating was found to be very stable with very limited desorption (less than 2%) from a long term observation. By measuring the water contact angles, the changes in surface hydrophobicity due to mucin coating were monitored on four polymer materials, namely polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyurethane (PU), polystyrene (PS), and silicone. After coating, all the hydrophobic surfaces turned into very hydrophilic. A strict correlation between mucin surface concentration and surface wettability has been found.