Never-dried bacterial cellulose/fibrin composites: preparation, morphology and mechanical properties

Abstract

BC/fibrin composites having fibrin/BC weight percent ratios ranging from 2/98 to 64/36 were produced by immersing never-dried-BC into varying compositions of fibrin/ionic liquid/DMSO solutions and for increasing time periods. The composite compositions were predicted from an FTIR/Beer's law calibration method based on calibration samples which exhibited an RMSEP of 2.5 weight percent. Observations of the composite surface with atomic force microscopy and of the internal pore structure with scanning electron microscopy showed that increasing immersion times resulted into smoother surface composites and allowed further infiltration of fibrin into the microporous structure of BC. Tensile strength and cyclic creep tests demonstrated that the composition had significant impact on the ultimate tensile stress and cyclic creep strain level of BC/fibrin composites. It is proposed that these composites have potential for artificial blood vessel applications.

Glutaraldehyde treatment of bacterial cellulose/fibrin composites: impact on morphology, tensile and viscoelastic properties

“…strength, elasticity and durability (Kambic et al 1984). However, our earlier work on BC/fibrin composites (Brown et al 2011) showed only moderate improvements of mechanical properties as compared to native BC. In particular, the elasticity of the BC/fibrin composite as measured by the strain at break in static tensile test or the strain in low amplitude tensile cyclic creep testing was only moderately improved.…”

“…In the present fabrication method, the fibrin content was apparently limited by the surface area of BC fibers available for interactions. Indeed, most of the fibrin that initially infiltrated the BC fiber networks, as observed in SEM images in the previous work (Brown et al 2011), disassociated from BC during glutaraldehyde-treatment. For example, an initial BC/fibrin composite with 61wt% fibrin was reduced to a 33wt% fibrin content after glutaraldehyde-treatment.…”

“…This post hoc analysis was thus used to rank the means for all the mechanical properties measured for all samples (treated and nontreated BC-based samples and reference blood vessel). The compositions of the BC/fibrin composites were determined by a FT-IR method established in earlier work (Brown et al 2011). …”

Time-dependent rheological behaviour of bacterial cellulose hydrogel

“…Since BC is exposed to complex loading conditions of human-body environment, it is extremely important to characterize its viscoelastic properties in an explicit analytical form. Brown et al (2011Brown et al ( , 2012 quantified elastic and viscoelastic properties of a BC fibre-reinforced bio-composite with tensile and cyclic creep tests, demonstrating its suitability as a potential implant for artificial blood vessels. Nimeskern et al (2013) evaluated viscoelastic properties of BCs with various cellulose contents by means of stress-relaxation indentation; then, comparing the obtained data with those for ear cartilage.…”

Through-thickness stress relaxation in bacterial cellulose hydrogel

“…and a use as a scaffold material for both BC-based bio-composites (e.g. BC/fibrin composite for artificial blood vessel [10], BC/polyvinyl alcohol composite for artificial heart-valve leaflets [11], etc.) and in-vitro tissue regeneration (e.g.…”