Firstly, several conditions of oxygen plasma treatment for the activation of polypropylene mesh surface were tested to achieve the optimum graft yield and the strong adherence of PNIPAAm hydrogel, essential for the employment of the bilayer system as a surgical implant. The scientific results were published in Soft Matter (DOI: 10.1039/c9sm00412b) along with a detailed mechanism of NIPAAm reaction and network formation. In this period, the thermosensitive response of the bilayer smart mesh material was also approached, by using temperature gradients close to the human body temperatures and to the surgeon’s manipulation room before patient surgery.
The in vitro cell viability was also investigated with two different cell lines. A modular cell adhesion and cell detachment of the fibroblast-like cells was observed. Cell attachment is desirable to prove the biocompatibility of the new device, whereas the phenomena of de-adhesion is very appealing for the final application of the mesh, i.e. to avoid mesh adherence to other organs. Those results were published in Journal of Materials Chemistry B (DOI: 10.1039/c9tb02537e).
Finally, the study of the fourth-dimension (4D) behaviour of the bilayer system was performed by applying cycles of increase/decrease temperature and by considering two different humidity conditions. It was of outmost importance to evaluate the mesh behaviour outside human body because, in the mesh sterilization process, the synthetic implant will suffer changes from dry to wet and from wet to dry states, and must resist on flexibility and mechanical properties, before reaching the final consumer (hospitals and medical clinics). Therefore, samples were subjected to sterilization processes. In this point, the mobility of the MSCA-IF researcher, Dr. Sonia Lanzalaco, to the hosting secondment (B Braun Surgical S.A.) was of fundamental relevance for her training. The scientific results on the 4D behaviour were recently accepted for publication in Advanced Functional Materials (high impact factor journal, IF: 15.621); whereas the preliminary results from samples sterilization are under intellectual property rights protection.
Additionally to the dissemination in scientific journals, the project and its results were shared in two national and two international congresses.
The experienced researcher (ER), Dr. Lanzalaco, shared her activities in social media (youtube, facebook and twitter) for academic and non-academic publics. She also had the support of other members of UPC, for the facing Open Access week (2018), and in facebook activities for research dissemination in UPC Campus.
Altogether, the 4D-POLYSENSE project represented an outstanding research programme that helped the ER to develop her interdisciplinary career, to improve her communication and interpersonal skills, and to split her scientific knowledge and expertise with the academic and with non-academic publics.
