“superomniphobic” surface.
Photo from the Kota lab
at Colorado State University
Researchers say they have engineered “superhemophobic” titanium surfaces that could be used to create implantable medical devices that don’t pose a risk of thrombosis.
The team described this work in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
The undesirable interaction of blood with foreign materials is an ongoing problem in medical research, said study author Ketul Popat, PhD, of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.
He and his colleagues noted that, when implanted medical devices come in contact with blood, platelet adhesion and activation occur, which may lead to thrombosis and device failure.
“If we can design materials where blood barely contacts the surface, there is virtually no chance of clotting, which is a coordinated set of events,” Dr Popat said. “Here, we’re targeting the prevention of the first set of events.”
Dr Popat and his colleagues started with sheets of titanium, which are commonly used in medical devices. The team then grew chemically altered surfaces that act as barriers between the titanium and blood.
They analyzed variations of titanium surfaces, including different textures and chemistries, and compared the extent of platelet adhesion and activation.
These experiments revealed that fluorinated nanotubes offered the best protection against clotting.
Having implantable medical devices that repel blood might seem counterintuitive, the researchers noted, as biomedical scientists often use materials with an affinity to blood to make them biologically compatible.
“What we are doing is the exact opposite,” said study author Arun Kota, PhD, of Colorado State University.
“We are taking a material that blood hates to come in contact with, in order to make it compatible with blood.”
In essence, the titanium surface is so repellent that blood is “tricked” into “believing” there’s virtually no foreign material there at all.
Growing a surface and testing it in the lab is only the beginning, the researchers said. They want to continue examining other clotting factors, and eventually, to test real medical devices.
