Esca studies of polyurethanes: blood platelet activation in relation to surface composition

Segmented polyurethanes (SPU) were synthesized with polyethylene oxide (PEO), polypropylene oxide, or polytetramethylene oxide as the “soft segment,” from the respective polyether diols, of which molecular weight varied from 600 to 2000. The “hard segment” was created from ethylene diamine and tolylene diisocyanate or 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate. Platelet activation was assessed using columns packed with beads coated with each of the SPU by solutions from which the solvent was subsequently evaporated. Citrated whole human blood was passed through the columns and the platelet count in aliquots leaving the columns was compared with the platelet count in blood that had not contacted the column surface. By this method the fraction of platelets retained in the column averaged for several donors, ρ, was determined. In parallel experiments, SPU surfaces formed under identical conditions by evaporation of solvent were examined by X-ray electron spectroscopy for carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen content of the surface. The carbon C_1s spectra proved to be particularly useful, when analyzed for the components with peaks respectively at 286 eV (carbon not bonded to an ether oxygen) and at 288 eV (carbon bonded to an ether oxygen). The platelet retention index ρ was found to increase nearly linearly with the ratio of the 286-eV intensity to the 288-eV intensity, and extrapolated to nearly zero for zero value of the intensity ratio, which would correspond to amorphous PEO, suggesting that if a surface were only amorphous PEO it would be remarkably inactive toward platelets. In contrast, nitrogen spectra show no systematic relationship with ρ.