Immune-Instructive Polymers Control Macrophage Phenotype and Modulate the Foreign Body Response In Vivo

Implanted medical devices often elicit adverse foreign body responses whereby macrophages play a central role. Here, we identify simple polymers that instruct different immunological responses by modulating macrophage attachment and polarization to pro-inflammatory (M1-like) or anti-inflammatory (M2-like) phenotypes. These immune-instructive polymers were discovered using in vitro high-throughput polymer microarray screening of diverse (meth)acrylate and (meth)acrylamide libraries. The bioinstructive polymer functionis validated in vivo within a murine foreign body model. Differential tissue response from polymers coated on silicone tubing is consistent with in vitro macrophage pro- and anti-inflammatory responses. Polymer structure-cell response relationships are modeled using machine learning to reveal molecular descriptors useful for describing immune-instructive polymers. Analysis of the protein layer adsorbed to polymers from media suggests that thicker layers may relate to M1-like phenotype whereas the reverse relates to M2-like response. Such simple polymers are readily translatable into immune-instructive biomaterials for application in the medical device and regenerative medicine fields