Modification of agarose with carboxylation and grafting dopamine for promotion of its cell-adhesiveness

In order to improve bioactivity of agarose, we modified agarose by carboxylation and grafting dopamine. Under alkaline condition, carboxylated agarose was prepared using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical (TEMPO) oxidation system by oxidizing C6 hydroxyl on d-galactose ring into carboxyl group, and the maximum value of the degree of carboxylation reached 30%. With the increase of the amount of oxidant, the molecular weight of the carboxylated agarose decreased to 4 kDa by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) measure. Carboxylated agarose reacted with dopamine through EDC condensation reaction to obtain agarose grafting dopamine (Ag-g-DA), and the grafting rate of dopamine was determined to be 9.3% by UV spectroscopy at 280 nm. The structures of these modified agaroses were determined by FT-IR and 13C NMR. Both carboxylated agarose and Ag-g-DA showed no cytotoxicity and promoted cell-adhesiveness.