| Abstract: | The in vitro and ex vivo adsorption of blood proteins is studied in order to elucidate the protein-surface interactions which determine the thrombogenicity and thus the applicability of various polymers in blood contacting devices. The in vitro adsorption of albumin and fibrinogen to four polymers shows that at low solution concentrations, more fibrinogen is adsorbed than albumin. At higher solution concentrations, albumin adsorbs in multilayers while fibrinogen adsorbs, and then partially desorbs spontaneously from the surface. Sequential adsorption studies show that fibrinogen and albumin can partially replace each other. Fibrinogen is preferentially adsorbed over albumin in competitive adsorption studies. In ex vivo experiments, more albumin than fibrinogen is adsorbed from blood during the first 120 minutes of whole blood contact. When exposed to flowing whole blood, pre-adsorbed fibrinogen desorbs more rapidly than albumin. |
