Hydrophilic modification of intraocular lens via surface initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization for reduced posterior capsular opacification.

ABSTRACT

Phacoemulsification followed with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation is the most effective clinical surgeries in treating cataracts. However, posterior capsular opacification (PCO), a common complication of this surgery, may cause vision decrease after surgery. PCO is mainly caused by the adhesion, proliferation and trans-differentiation of the residual lens epithelial cells (LEC) after surgery. Surface modification of IOL to reduce the LEC adhesion is of great importance in PCO prevention. Herein, surface initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (SI-RAFT) polymerization was utilized to modify the IOL materials for generating a comb-like polyethylene glycol (PEG) brush coating on the surface. The ATR-FTIR, XPS, and contact angle characterizations indicate the successful immobilization of the RAFT agent, as well as the subsequent SI-RAFT polymerization of PEG macromonomer. More interestingly, the PEG brush coating shows excellent hydrophilicity on the surface. The in vitro LEC culture and bacteria adhesion results show that the hydrophilic modification can effectively reduce the bio-adhesion. The in vivo implantation results show that the PEG brush modified IOL presents good biocompatibility, and significantly decreases the posterior capsular hyperplasia. These results demonstrate that the surface modification of IOL with excellent hydrophilic brush via SI-RAFT may provide a good alternative for IOL anti-PCO modification.