Biomedical Applications of Carbon Adsorbents

Adsorption of Bovine Serum Albumin on Carbon-Based Materials

“…Among the earliest applications are the use of graphite and pyrolytic carbon for constructing artificial heart valves [1] and activated carbon in hemoperfusion devices for the treatment of exo-and endogenous poisonings of different etiology [2]. The use of activated carbon as an oral adsorbent can be traced back to ancient Greece [2].…”

“…Despite their excellent molecular adsorption properties, biocompatibility of activated carbons is often compromised by the release of microparticles owing to their poor mechanical strength [16]. This problem was addressed by using semipermeable synthetic or natural polymer coatings, which prevented nanoparticles release but decreased adsorption capacity of the adsorbent, in particular towards middle and high molecular weight toxins [2]. However, the development of medical grade activated carbon adsorbents allows their use in direct contact with blood without coating or with patchy coating which does not significantly affect their adsorption capacity towards the whole range of adsorbates [17].…”

“…Among the earliest applications are the use of graphite and pyrolytic carbon for constructing artificial heart valves [1] and activated carbon in hemoperfusion devices for the treatment of exo-and endogenous poisonings of different etiology [2]. The use of activated carbon as an oral adsorbent can be traced back to ancient Greece [2]. Development of novel nanostructured carbons and methods for their surface modification expanded the choice of materials and led to the applications in biosensors, coatings for medical devices, drug and gene delivery carriers and bioimaging [3].…”

Antifouling zwitterionic hydrogel coating improves hemocompatibility of activated carbon hemoadsorbent

“…R is the universal gas constant, T is absolute temperature, 2 is the volume fraction of polymer at equilibrium (in the fully swollen hydrogel), and o is the volume fraction of polymer in the relaxed state (non-swollen, but not dehydrated hydrogel). (2)(3) where N A is Avagadro's number. The value of is definitely mesh size of the hydrogel coatings.…”

“…Basing on adsorption, hemoperfusion (HP) technology can be used to remove toxic substances from the blood of patients, thus it has been widely used clinically in the treatment of severe intoxications, nephritic, hepatic/multiorgan insufficiency, autoimmune diseases, sepsis, etc [1][2][3]. Unlike hemodialysis (HD) and hemofiltration (HF), which mainly remove small and hydrophilic molecules from blood, a unique ability of hemoperfusion is to efficiently adsorb molecules with larger molecular weight and/or high protein-binding affinity [4][5][6].…”