Phospholipid polymers & new haemocompatible materials

Abstract

AbstractWhen blood comes into contact with an artificial surface, a number of events occur which include protein adsorption, platelet activation and the activation of the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation. With the increased application of blood containing artificial devices, there is a great demand to develop new biomaterials which retard thrombus formation. Our new approach to solving this problem is to mimic the non‐thrombogenic surface of natural biological membranes at least in a simple form. We have developed a polymerisable phospholipid and polyesters based on the major phospholipid polar head group present on the erythrocyte outer membrane surface. The coagulation of blood exposed to these polymers was examined by the technique of Material Thrombelastography, a relatively simple test for the in vitro screening of polymer thrombogenicity. We present results which indicate that the polymerised phospholipid and polyesters show reduced thrombogenicity, and may therefore have potential for future biomaterials.