Study of Protein-Fluoropolymer Interactions for Passivation of Blood-Contacting Surfaces

Abstract

While decades of biomaterials research have yielded devices that prolong the lives of cardiovascular disease patients, clinicians still rely on dangerous anticoagulants to ensure their anti-thrombogenicity, and thus lack a truly blood compatible biomaterial. Fluoropolymers have offered improvements in this respect, but studies probing protein tight-binding and platelet response have failed to yield correlations between material properties and clinical performance, preventing the optimization of these promising materials. This work presents a fresh approach to addressing this problem, comparing a subset of fluoropolymers with a wide array of properties. Through principal component regression, ESCA, AFM, and contact angle data were compared to adsorption and retention of human albumin and fibrinogen in a competitive binding setting, and preliminary recommendations for certain property-performance relationships were made. The methods developed represent a solid foundation for increasing number of parameters and sample size to enable the rational design of better blood compatible fluoropolymers.