Today's medical implants such as stents, catheters and tubing are made with materials with an affinity to blood in order to make them biologically compatible. However, with a "superhemophobic" titanium surface that's repellent to blood, the researchers hope to facilitate surgical implants that are "invisible" within the body.
When platelets in the blood adhere to medical implants, it usually leads to blood clotting and the eventual rejection of the foreign material. This innovation targets that action of attachment, tricking the blood to believe there's no foreign material there at all.
The idea is a collaboration between the labs of Arun Kota, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, and associate professor Ketal Popat, both at Colorado State University.
Kota, an expert in "superomniphobic" materials that repel almost any liquid, and Popat, an innovator in tissue engineering and bio-compatible materials, grew chemically altered surfaces that would act as a barrier between titanium and blood.
"We are taking a material that blood hates to come in contact with, in order to make it compatible with blood," said Kota.
Popat pointed out that stents can form clots or obstructions which can lead to heart attacks or embolisms. As a result, patients may need blood-thinning medications for the rest of their lives, and those drugs aren't foolproof.
Blood clots because it finds cells to attach to, so "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," Popat explained.
Their research is published in under the title “Hemocompatibility of Superhemophobic Titania Surfaces” in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.
For more advances in the field of medical implants, find out how 3D Scanning Improves Ear Implant Production and Outcomes.