Functionalized polypropylene non-woven fabric membrane with bovine serum albumin and its hemocompatibility enhancement

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was successfully immobilized onto polypropylene non-woven fabric (PPNWF) membranes using poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as a spacer. Firstly, O2 plasma treatment and UV-irradiated technique were combined to graft PAA onto the membranes. BSA was then immobilized onto the PAA grafted surface through the coupling of amino groups of BSA to the carboxyl groups of PAA. The immobilization of PAA and BSA onto the membrane was confirmed by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and water contact angle measurement. The water contact angle measurement results revealed that the membrane hydrophilicity improved after modification with PAA and BSA. After BSA immobilization, the amount of protein adsorption and the number of platelet adhesion on the modified membrane significantly decreased, which indicated that hemocompatibility had been considerably improved compared with neat and PAA grafted PPNWF. The whole blood clotting time measurement showed that the anticoagulant property of the modified membrane was also significantly enhanced.