The main obstacles in the melt-processing of hydroxyapatite (HA) and carbon fiber (CF) reinforced polyetheretherketone (PEEK) composite are the high melting temperature of PEEK, poor dispersion of HA nanofillers, and poor processability due to high filler content. In this study, we prepared PEEK/HA/CF ternary composite using two different non-melt blending methods; suspension blending (SUS) in ethanol and mechanofusion process (MF) in dry condition. We compared the mechanical properties and bioactivity of the composite in a spinal cage application in the orthopedic field. Results showed that the PEEK/HA/CF composite made by the MF method exhibited higher flexural and compressive strengths than the composite prepared by the SUS method due to the enhanced dispersibility of HA nanofiller. On the basis of in vitro cell compatibility and cell attachment tests, PEEK/HA/CF composite by mechanofusion process showed an improvement in in vitro bioactivity and osteo-compatibility.

In this study, we manufactured biocompatible hemostatic crosslinked chitosan (CS) patches and analyzed their physicochemical and biological properties for femoral arterial puncture applications. CS is a representative hemostatic material but has some drawbacks, such as swelling, shrinkage, and brittleness. Thus, it was crosslinked via a 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC)/N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) coupling reaction and a nucleophilic addition reaction with citric acid (CA), glutaraldehyde (GTA), and genipin (GP) to remedy its shortcomings. The CSCA (crosslinked CS with CA/EDC), CSGTA (crosslinked CS with GTA), and CSG (crosslinked CS with GP) films showed low swelling degrees and good mechanical properties (excluding CSCA) compared with those of neat CS films. Additionally, every crosslinked CS film coated with thrombin (TB-CS) showed enhanced hemostatic ability in the whole blood clotting and activated partial thromboplastin time tests. Furthermore, the CSCA, CSGTA, and CSGP were nontoxic in an in vitro cell cytotoxicity test (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay) using L-929 mouse fibroblasts cells.

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