Low thrombogenicity coating of nonwoven PET fiber structures for vascular grafts

Vascular PET grafts (Dacron) have shown good performance in large vessels ( 656mm) applications. To address the urgent unmet need for small-diameter (2\u20136mm) vascular grafts, proprietary high-compliance nonwoven PET fiber structures were modified with various PEG concentrations using PVA as a cross-linking agent, to fabricate non-thrombogenicmechanically compliant vascular grafts. The blood compatibility assays measured through platelet adhesion (SEM and mepacrine dye) and platelet activation (morphological changes, P-selectin secretion, and TXB2 production) demonstrate that functionalization using a 10% PEG solution was sufficient to significantly reduce platelet adhesion/activation close to optimal literature-reported levels observed on carbon-coated ePTFE.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye