Immobilization of superoxide dismutase/catalase onto polysulfone membranes to suppress hemodialysis-induced oxidative stress: A comparison of two immobilization methods

The objective of this study is to improve the blood compatibility of polysulfone (PSF) based hemodialysis membranes through generating antioxidative surfaces with superoxide dismutase (SOD)/catalase (CAT) enzyme couple immobilization. Enzymes were attached both covalently and ionically on the plasma treated and polyethyleneimine (PEI) deposited membranes, respectively. The loss of enzymes from PEI modified surface at the end of 4 h was found to be relatively higher during storage in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 when compared to the enzymes on the plasma treated surface. The kinetic studies indicated that SOD catalyzed the reaction in the diffusion-limited regime at all substrate concentrations and its inactivation by hydrogen peroxide was prevented in the presence of CAT. SOD/CAT coated PSF membranes were capable of reducing the levels of reactive oxygen species in blood and can significantly prolong activated partial thromboplastin time. In addition, both the adsorption of human plasma proteins and platelet activation on all modified membranes decreased significantly compared to the unmodified PSF membranes. Proposed modification methods did not affect high permeability, high mechanical strength or the non-toxic properties of the PSF membranes.L'Oreal Turkey Women in Science Program; Izmir Institute of Technology (2010IYTE03