Synthesis and Evaluation of Zwitterionic Starch

Zwitterionic starch (AL-Z) was synthesized following the methodology reported in the previous article [26 (link)]. Polyethylene glycol (PEG, Mw~1000) was purchased from Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany). Polycaprolactone diol (PCL-diol, Mw~2000), isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), N, N-Dimethylformamide (anhydrous, 99.8%) (DMF), and potato starch (soluble) (AL-N) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). A Micro BCA™ Protein Assay Kit and Triton^® X-100 were obtained from Thermo Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA). A CytoTox 96^® Non-Radioactive Cytotoxicity Assay kit was provided by Promega (Woods Hollow Road, Madison, WI, USA) and a Human Thrombin-Antithrombin Complex ELISA Kit (TAT) by Abcam (Cambridge, UK). Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), ethanol absolute, calcium chloride anhydrous (CaCl₂), and bovine albumin serum (BSA) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). A 0.9% sodium chloride solution was acquired from Baxter (Deerfield, Illinois, USA). Phosphate buffer solution (PBS) was obtained from VWR^® (Radnor, PA, USA). Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human aortic smooth muscle cells (AoSMC), an EGM BulletKit, and an SmGM-2 BulletKit were purchased from Lonza (Basel, Switzerland).