Engineering biomimetic polyurethane using polyethylene glycol and gelatin for blood-contacting applications

Polyurethane (PU) has been utilized in the development of various blood-contacting medical devices owing to their good biocompatibility and mechanical properties. The present study highlights the design and engineering of biomimetic polyurethanes with enhanced hemocompatibility by blending it with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and modifying its surface using gelatin as a surface modifier. The physicochemical characterization of the developed polyurethanes was performed by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, water contact angle analysis and water uptake studies, while thermal properties were evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis. The surface protein adsorption pattern along with hemocompatibility of the films was verified by BCA, hemolysis assay, activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time and platelet adhesion studies. Our results demonstrated that the developed polyurethane surfaces modified with PEG and gelatin exhibited increased hydrophilicity which caused enhanced biocompatibility and hemocompatibility. The platelet adhesion was reduced by 92.54% and 88.81% on the developed PU/PEG-4K and PU/PEG-4K/GEL surfaces, respectively. The in vitro cytocompatibility evaluation was done using HUVECs which confirmed that the developed surfaces were able to promote adhesion and proliferation of HUVECs. The biomimetic polyurethane surfaces co-engineered with PEG and gelatin exhibited excellent hemocompatibility and can be promising candidates for their further evaluation toward their application in the blood-contacting devices.