Bioactive heparin immobilized onto microfluidic channels in poly(dimethylsiloxane) results in hydrophilic surface properties

A new composition of heparin coating for microfluidic systems made out of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was developed and evaluated. The coating that consists of a conditioning polyamine layer followed by two heparin/ glutaraldehyde layers, resulted in channel surfaces with sufficient wettability to obtain flow of human normal plasma by capillary force alone. Hydrophilic channel walls are a desirable characteristic in microfluidic devices, since alternative pumping mechanisms must otherwise be included into the system. The immobilized heparin showed high antithrombin-binding capacity and a low degree of blood-material interaction. Plasma in contact with heparin-coated PDMS formed no detectable fibrin in a spectrophotometric assay by which plasma in contact with non-treated PDMS showed complete coagulation. The quartz crystal microbalance technique with energy dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) was utilized to obtain detailed information regarding adsorption kinetics and structural properties of the different layers composing the heparin coating.