Additive Benefits of Chondroitin Sulfate and Oriented Tethered Epidermal Growth Factor for Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Survival

An anti‐apoptotic coating combining chondroitin sulfate (CS) and coiled–coil‐based tethering of epidermal growth factor (EGF) is designed for vascular applications. The oriented tethering strategy enables to reach higher EGF surface densities compared to the commonly used random covalent grafting, while using much lower concentrations of EGF during incubation. It also significantly improves vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) survival and resistance to apoptosis in serum‐free conditions. The comparison of CS and low‐fouling carboxymethylated dextran as a sublayer for growth factors highlights the tremendous benefit of CS thanks to its selective protein resistance and good cell adhesion properties. This approach can be tuned by capturing other growth factors on CS through coiled–coil interactions. An anti‐apoptotic coating created by oriented immobilization of EGF via coiled–coil peptides is shown to display higher protein surface densities and bioactivity compared to random grafting. In addition, the huge benefit of chondroitin sulfate as a sublayer for growth factor immobilization is highlighted by comparison with another low‐fouling surface.