**5. Conclusions**

The ATR infrared spectra and quartz crystal microbalance measurements presented show that fibroblast growth factor-2 can be embedded into the film structure by adsorbing layers of polyelectrolytes over the FGF-2. In addition, it was found that the overall multilayer structure is altered by PBS exposure during the embedding process, and that the incorporation of growth factor had little disruptive e ffect on the film build-up. This ability of fucoidan to bind fibroblast growth factor 2 in a multilayer structure could o ffer new methods for protecting and deploying growth factor in a wound bed. Such deployment as a coating on wound dressing material would allow the growth factor to be active in a wound bed as the polyelectrolyte degrades and exposes/releases the growth factor.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/18/11/531/s1, Figure S1: ATR FTIR spectrum.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualisation: D.A.B., M.K. Data curation: N.L.B., M.K. Formal analysis: N.L.B., D.A.B. Funding acquisition: D.A.B., M.K. Investigation: N.L.B., S.K., M.K. Supervision: S.K., M.K., D.A.B. Writing–original

draft: N.B. Writing–review and editing: N.B., S.K., M.K., D.A.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centres Program. DB acknowledges the financial support from the Australian Research Council (ARC: Future Fellowship FT100100393).

**Conflicts of Interest:** There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
