Glistening-Free and Anti-Adhesive MPC-Grafted SIBS Polymer With Excellent Optical Performance for Phakic Intraocular Lens

Abstract

Phakic intraocular lenses (pIOLs) are an increasingly popular treatment for refractive errors, particularly myopia. However, there are limited materials available for pIOLs, and each has its issues such as non-foldability, low refractive index (RI), glistenings, or bioadhesion. In response to existing challenges, a series of poly(styrene-block-isobutylene-block-styrene) (SIBS) block copolymers are evaluated for pIOL application, and methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) is grafted onto SIBS to further improve its anti-adhesive properties in this work. By controlling the styrene content, SIBS exhibits a tunable high RI of 1.521–1.532. Meanwhile, the SIBS materials are foldable and possess a glass transition temperature (T _g) below −60°C. Furthermore, SIBS has a very low average glistening density below 20 MV/mm². Given the hydrophobic nature of the materials, MPC is grafted onto the surface of SIBS, resulting in a notable decrease in water contact angle, protein adsorption, and relative bacterial adsorption from 102.7° ± 2.3°, 12.13 ± 1.82 μg/cm², and 1.00 ± 0.33 to 78.2° ± 0.2°, 3.16 ± 0.93 μg/cm², and 0.02 ± 0.01, respectively. Cytotoxicity and in vivo subcutaneous implantation experiments demonstrate that both SIBS and its modified counterpart are noncytotoxic and biosafe. Collectively, SIBS-based materials represent a promising option for the next generation of pIOLs.