Altering in vivo macrophage responses with modified polymer properties

Macrophage reprogramming has long been the focus of research in disease therapeutics and biomaterial implantation. With different chemical and physical properties of materials playing a role in macrophage polarization, it is important to investigate and categorize the activation effects of material parameters both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we have investigated the effects of material surface chemistry on in vivo polarization of macrophages. The library of materials used here include poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (p(NIPAm-co-AAc)) nanoparticles (∼600 nm) modified with various functional groups. This study also focuses on the development of a quantitative structure-activity relationship method (QSAR) as a predictive tool for determining the macrophage polarization in response to particular biomaterial surface chemistries. Here, we successfully use in vivo imaging and histological analysis to identify the macrophage response and activation. We demonstrate the ability to induce a spectrum of macrophage phenotypes with a change in material functionality as well as identify certain material parameters that seem to correlate with each phenotype. This suggests the potential to develop materials for a variety of applications and predict the outcome of macrophage activation in response to new surface chemistries.