Adhesion behavior of rat lymphocyte subpopulations (B cell and T cell) on the surface of polystyrene/polypeptide graft copolymer.

Polyvinyl/polypeptide graft copolymers having microdomain structure on their surfaces were newly synthesized for the development of a specific cell separator, and the adhesion behavior of rat lymphnode lymphocytes with these materials was examined by column method. Morphologic change of lymphocytes adherent to the graft copolymers was found to be less than that of cells adherent to corresponding homopolymers, i.e., polystyrene and poly (gamma-benzyl L-glutamate). Separation of lymphocyte subpopulations (B cell and T cell) was examined in the absence of serum proteins. The adhesion selectivity for B cell was found to depend on the microdomain structure, since the highest value, 2,2, was observed for the graft copolymer with the polypeptide content of 50 wt%. Synthetic polypeptide derivatives may be promising materials which substitute for a conventional system with nylon fiber and fetal calf serum.