Covalent immobilization of glucose oxidase onto poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) monodisperse fluorescent microspheres synthesized by dispersion polymerization

In this study, micron-sized poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) (PSt–GMA) fluorescent microspheres of 5.1 μm in diameter were synthesized via dispersion polymerization of styrene and glycidyl methacrylate in the presence of 1,4-bis(5-phenyloxazol-2-yl) benzene (POPOP), which provided surface functional groups for covalent immobilization of enzymes. In an effort to study the biocompatibility of the microspheres’ surface, glucose oxidase and β-d-(+)-glucose were selected as a catalytic system for enzymatic assays. A colorimetric method was adopted in evaluating enzymatic activity by introducing horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Both the immobilization amount and the apparent activity of immobilized glucose oxidase from Aspergillus niger (GOD) were determined at different conditions. The results show that the immobilized enzymes retained approximately 28 to 34% activity, as compared with free enzymes, without pronounced alteration of the optimum pH and temperature. Kinetics studies show that the corresponding values of Km and Vmax are 23.2944 mM and 21.6450 M/min · mg GOD for free enzymes and 35.1780 mM and 15.4799 M/min · mg GOD for immobilized enzymes. The operational stability studies show that immobilized GOD could retain nearly 50% initial activity after being washed 20 times. The results suggest that the resultant PSt–GMA fluorescent microspheres provide a suitable surface for covalent immobilizing biomolecules; therefore, they have the potential of being used in fluorescence-based immunoassays in high-throughput screening or biosensors.