Antibiotic-loaded polypropylene surgical meshes with suitable biological behaviour by plasma functionalization and polymerization

• Published in: Biomaterials Vol. 71; pp. 132 - 144
• Main Authors: Labay, C, Canal, J.M, Modic, M, Cvelbar, U, Quiles, M, Armengol, M, Arbos, M.A, Gil, F.J, Canal, C
• Format: Journal Article Publication
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2015
• Subjects: Abdominal-wall; Administració de medicaments; Advanced Basic Science; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - administration & dosage; Antibacterial activity; Antibiotics; Biological; Biomaterials; Biomedical applications; Biomedical materials; Cell Line; Cirurgia; Dentistry; Drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Drugs; Enginyeria biomèdica; Enginyeria tèxtil; Fibroblast; Humans; Hèrnia; Hèrnia inguinal; In-vitro; Infection; Inguinal hernia; Inguinal-hernia repair; Malles; Materials biomèdics; Mice; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Perfluorinated ionomer; Plasma; Polipropilè; Polyamide 6.6; Polymerization; Polypropylene; Polypropylenes; Protein adsorption; Repair; Surface modification; Surface Properties; Surgery; Surgical implants; Surgical Mesh; Teixits; Teixits mèdics; Wettability; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC; Plasma; Surface modification; Surgical mesh; Drug delivery; Polypropylene; Fibroblast
• ISSN: 0142-9612; 1878-5905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.08.023

Abstract Hernia repair is one of the most common operations in general surgery, and its associated complications typically relate to infections, among others. The loading of antibiotics to surgical meshes to deliver them locally in the abdominal hernia repair site can be one way to manage infections associated with surgical implants. However, the amount of drug loaded is restricted by the low wettability of polypropylene (PP). In this work, plasma has been used to tailor the surface properties of PP meshes to obtain high loading of ampicillin while conserving the desired biological properties of the unmodified samples and conferring them with antibacterial activity. It was demonstrated that the new surface chemistry and improved wettability led to 3-fold higher antibiotic loading. Subsequently, a PEG-like dry coating was deposited from tetraglyme with low-pressure plasma which allowed maintaining the high drug loading and kept cell properties such as chemotaxis, adhesion and morphology to the same levels as the untreated ones which have shown long-standing clinical success.