Blood contacting devices are frequently limited by complications such as surface-induced thrombosis. This thesis investigated the feasibility of using a family of recombinant elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), namely ELP1, ELP2 and ELP4 that differ by molecular weight and sequence length, as potential thromboresistant coatings. The ELP coatings were prepared by physical adsorption onto the surface of Mylar, with surface modification confirmed by goniometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and chemical force microscopy (CFM). Both surface wettability and hydrophilic adhesion force increased as the ELP sequence length decreased. The ELP adsorption process monitored by using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) showed that the ELPs adsorbed within a monolayer. Additionally, ELP surface coverage was found to increase with the polypeptide sequence length. The QCM-D studies also revealed that the longer polypeptides (ELP2 and ELP4) exhibited higher specific dissipation values indicating that they established adsorbed layers with greater structural flexibility and associated water content compared to ELP1.

Exposure of the ELP coatings to flowing reconstituted blood demonstrated that both the ELP2 and ELP4 coatings reduced the quantity of adsorbed fibrinogen (Fg), with the ELP4 coating resulting in the lowest levels of adherent platelets. Energy dissipation versus frequency shift plots obtained from QCM-D studies indicated that adsorbed Fg on the ELP4 coating maintained a softer, more flexible film then on the other ELPs. The ELP4 coating also demonstrated an altered binding activity for GPIIb/IIIa where only the AGDV motif in the adsorbed Fg gamma-chain appeared to be exposed and bioactive. Conversely, on the other ELP coatings both the AGDV and RGD motifs (found within the Fg alpha-chain) were available for binding, suggesting that a different Fg conformational state exists on the ELP1 and ELP2 coatings. Moreover, both the ELP2 and ELP4 coatings displayed minimal bulk platelet reactivity following extended whole blood shear exposure (up to an hour) compared to Mylar. This was not observed with the ELP1 coating. Overall, the results suggest that the structural flexibility and associated water content of the ELP coatings appear to be important criteria influencing their thrombogenicity, with ELP4 displaying the most favourable blood-material response compared to ELP1 and ELP2.