Stable microstructured network for protein patterning on a plastic microfluidic channel: strategy and characterization of on-chip enzyme microreactors

Chemical modification of a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microchannel surface has been explored to functionalize microfluidic chip systems. A craft copolymer was designed and synthesized to introduce the silane functional groups onto the plastic surface first. Furthermore, it has been found that, through a silicon-oxygen-silicon bridge that formed by tethering to these functional groups, a stable patterning network of gel matrix could be achieved. Thus, anchorage of proteins could be realized onto the hydrophobic PMMA microchannels with bioactivity preserved as far as possible. The protein homogeneous patterning in a microfluidic channel has been demonstrated by performing microchip capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection and confocal fluorescence microscopy. To investigate the bioactivity of enzymes entrapped within stable silica gel-derived microchannels, the suggested scheme was employed to the construction of immobilized enzyme microreactor-on-a-chip. The proteolytic activity of immobilized trypsin has been demonstrated with the digestion of cytochrome c and bovine serum albumin at a fast flow rate of 4.0 microL/min, which affords the short residence time less than 5 s. The digestion products were characterized using MALDI-TOF MS with sequence coverage of 75 and 31% observed, respectively. This research exhibited a simple but effective strategy of plastic microchip surface modification for protein immobilization in biological and proteomic research.