Scalable anti-infection polyurethane catheters with long-acting and autoclavable properties

Abstract

Medical catheter-related infection is one of the major challenges in clinical practice. Therefore, the development of catheters with antibacterial property is of great significance to protect the health of patients and improve the medical standards. In the present work, polyurethane (PU) was modified with an efficient imidazole ionic liquid (IL)-typed cationic antibacterial agent, Mim-BU, to prepare antibacterial plastics (PU/Mim-BU). The addition of Mim-BU did not negatively affect the mechanical properties of the PU/Mim-BU materials. By the combination with Mim-BU, PU/Mim-BU showed efficient and long-term antibacterial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The antibacterial activity could be maintained after being soaked in water for seven days. After three rounds of autoclave treatments, the PU/Mim-BU materials still maintained excellent antibacterial property. The good biocompatibility of PU/Mim-BU materials was proved through cytotoxicity and hemolysis tests. The surface of PU/Mim-BU materials also possessed bactericidal performances under hydrodynamic conditions. Due to the facile synthetic route of Mim-BU, PU/Mim-BU catheters were produced with an industrial extruder in large scale. The results of animal experiments demonstrated the in vivo anti-infection performance of the produced antibacterial PU/Mim-BU catheters. The current work is expected to provide a facile and feasible strategy for development and application of long-term antibacterial catheters.