For many years the function of blood contacting materials has been compromised severely by non-ideal blood compatibility. The project partners will introduce a whole new way of thinking by introducing an approach which is more than just a coating of devices.
A new material will for the first time combine ultra-biocompatibility with chemical resistance and desired mechanical properties, to effectively prevent adverse host response, inflammation and infection.
Starting with peripheral vascular access lines, thrombosis and material rejection will be prevented and hence reduce the massive and often life-long use of anti-coagulants and immune response-controlling drugs currently necessary to control host response towards traditional materials.
The success criterion is to exceed performance of coatings by producing the first fully biocompatible material to be used as sole robust bulk material of vascular access lines. The broad, cross-disciplinary project group has the access, expertise and clear intention to follow the development to both preclinical and clinical testing.
The research approach is unique and addresses a 60 year old unresolved problem with medical devices which are not sufficiently biocompatible. The problem is even more eminent today as millions of devices are used every day in a growing number. Suboptimal materials in contact with blood cause complications, diseases, and death. For the first time the project breaks with the tradition of coating, and makes a hybrid solution which is flexible enough to combine both a passive shielding from blood and long lasting active treatment to optimize integration of next generation medical devices.
A major problem in biomaterials science is that bioresistant materials are inevitably also chemically inert and hence highly difficult to manipulate by traditional wet chemistry. If manipulation (e.g. coating) is achieved, the solution is often unstable and fragile. The project address this problem by combining two materials using a novel method based on super critical CO2-chemistry. It results in a hybrid material which is stably formed and combines the best properties of two or more materials. No other approach has so far been capable of combining materials with the flexibility necessary for truly biocompatible devices. Through unique monomer design it is possible to tailor and optimize impregnated hydrogels for optimal performance. Furthermore, the opportunity to load the embedded hydrogel with active substances for controlled release will further enhance hemocompatibility. Lastly, the approach is operated as a post-treatment which results in a low cost and fast-to-market model. This will form a platform which will be integrated with multilayered coatings to provide the optimal scaffold system and the option of a combined set of release kinetics for various phases of device integration.
