Preparation, characterization and biocompatibility evaluation of poly(diol citrate) blend polyethersulfone hemodialysis membranes

Abstract

Hemodialysis is one of the applied membrane technologies that is regarded as a life-saving therapy for patients with impaired kidneys. It purifies blood toxins outside of the patient’s body using a dialyzer as a kidney replacement. Synthetic materials such as polyethersulfone (PES) polymer are currently being used to fabricate the dialyzer membrane for hemodialysis. However, the blood compatibility or hemocompatibility of these materials are still inadequate and administration of an anticoagulant (heparin) is required throughout the dialysis procedure to avoid blood clotting. Therefore this study aimed at developing a biocompatibility membrane for hemodialysis application. In this study, poly (1,8-octanediol citrate) (POC) that synthesized through a simple polycondesation method was used to enhance membrane biocompatibility. Different compositions of POC (0-3%) were added into polyethersulfone (PES) dope solutions to fabricate modified biocompatible PES membranes via the phase-inversion technique. The biocompatibility of the modified PES membranes was evaluated by human serum fibrinogen (FBG) protein adsorption, platelet adhesion, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT), thrombin–antithrombin III (TAT), complement (C3a and C5a) activation and Ca2+ absorption on membrane. Results showed that higher POC wt.% caused a 31% reduction of FBG adsorption, less platelets adhesion, prolonged APTT (11.1 seconds) and PT (2.5 seconds), lower TAT activation, suppressed C5a and C3a activation and absorbed 35% more Ca2+ ion compared to pristine PES membrane. These results indicated that modified PES blended POC has good biocompatibility properties, suggesting potential application in the field of blood purification, especially in hemodialysis.