Preliminary hemocompatibility assessment of an innovative material for blood contacting surfaces

Martina Todesco,Elena Pontara,Gino Gerosa,Chunyan Cheng,Vittorio Pengo,Andrea Bagno

doi:10.1007/s10856-021-06556-0

Abstract

Over the years, several devices have been created (and the development of many others is currently in progress) to be in permanent contact with blood: mechanical circulatory supports represent an example thereof. The hemocompatibility of these devices largely depends on the chemical composition of blood-contacting components. In the present work, an innovative material (hybrid membrane) is proposed to fabricate the inner surfaces of a pulsatile ventricular chamber: it has been obtained by coupling a synthetic polymer (e.g., commercial polycarbonate urethane) with decellularized porcine pericardium. The hemocompatibility of the innovative material has been preliminarily assessed by measuring its capacity to promote thrombin generation and induce platelet activation. Our results demonstrated the blood compatibility of the proposed hybrid membrane.

Highlights

Recent technological advancements allowed expanding the clinical exploitation of several biomedical devices to be surgically implanted into the body; many of them have to stay in permanent contact with blood
It is worthy to compare the slope of the curves in Fig. 1: it can be considered as an index of the capacity to induce platelet activation
The development of innovative Total Artificial Hearts (TAHs) to overcome the drawbacks of the currently available ones is still a challenging goal: it requires huge technological efforts to design and create a device reproducing the performances of the native heart

Summary

Introduction

Recent technological advancements allowed expanding the clinical exploitation of several biomedical devices to be surgically implanted into the body; many of them have to stay in permanent contact with blood. Examples of these kinds of devices are Total Artificial Hearts (TAHs), Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs), vascular grafts, and prosthetic mechanical heart valves. They are different in terms of 86 Page 2 of 7. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine (2021) 32:86 structural and functional complexity, but they have to share a common constraint, which is hemocompatibility. Clinical practice demonstrates that blood compatibility concerns can cause hemorrhages, hemolysis, thrombosis, and thromboembolism [4]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion