Molecularly imprinted poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) membranes for the specific recognition of phospholipids

In this paper we concentrated on the possibility of adopting molecular imprinting technology for the preparation of polymeric membranes imprinted with phosphatidylcholine, one of the main phospholipids found in the cell membrane and lipoproteins, via phase inversion, with the intention of applying this method in the ongoing research into the regression of atherosclerosis. The polymer matrix was based on poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) with an ethylene molar content of 44% and the amount of template molecule was varied so as to obtain three different kinds of membrane. We found that they possessed elevated binding capabilities (78.6% of the initial amount of phosphatidylcholine was found to be adsorbed by the membrane) united with a very high selectivity. Similar phospholipids (phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylethanolamine) were found to be adsorbed only in very small quantities and mostly due to the porosity of the membrane itself and not to molecular imprinting.