The Evaluation of the Hemocompatibility of Polymer Membrane Materials for Blood Oxygenation

Abstract

A comprehensive interdisciplinary study is performed for 12 polymers promising for the fabrication of membranes for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation based on them by methods of gas permeability, wetting, piezoelectric microweighing, and direct biomedical methods for determining hemocompatibility of whole blood from healthy donors. It is found that trimethylsilyl-substituted polytricyclononene, polyhexafluoropropylene, and semicrystalline polyphenylene oxide are the best polymer materials for the diffusion membranes of oxygenators. It is shown that traditional approaches that associate the surface properties of polymers (water wettability, plasma protein adsorption, energy characteristics of surfaces) with their hemocompatibility do not provide precise correlations with the biomedical methods based on the analysis of the changes in the shape of blood cells as a result of adhesion on the surface of the polymer. The complexity of the mechanism of interaction of the surface of polymers with blood also does not allow for clear structureproperty correlations traditional for membrane gas separation. The directions of further research in this area are defined.

Novel Size-Variable Dedicated Rodent Oxygenator for ECLS Animal Models: Introduction of the “Ratox” Oxygenator and Preliminary In-Vitro Results

“…This way, the post-production alterations to the fiber mats by the oxygenator manufacturer, like anti-thrombotic coatings [14,67,68], can be transferred to the rodent model. For laboratories developing and studying their own fibers, surface alterations, or coatings, all fibers can be integrated as long as they are knitted to fiber mats [67,[69][70][71].…”

Factors Influencing 1st and 2nd Generation Drug-Eluting Stent Performance: Understanding the Basic Pharmaceutical Drug-in-Polymer Formulation Factors Contributing to Stent Thrombosis Do We Really Need to Eliminate the Polymer?

“…At the same time, the lower surface free energy of more hydrophobic polymers has been associated with lower rates of endothelial cell adhesion, which could further explain the challenge in optimizing polymer properties as being thromboresistant [205]. On the other hand, the presence of polar groups on hydrophilic polymer surfaces has been shown to promote better adhesion, which is not considered to be good hemocompatibility, because platelet adhesion could result in thrombus formation [206,207]. Hemocompatibility prediction parameters of polymer materials are the energy characteristics of the surfaces of polymer films, the specific surface free energy of the polymer/air boundary and interphase energy of the polymer/liquid interface, all of which influence polymer mechanical strength upon long-term exposure to the blood, as well as polymer adsorption and adhesion properties in respect to blood constituents [207,208].…”