There is a great commercial significance of developing efficient hollow fiber membrane (HFM) materials for bioartificial kidney (BAK). The idea is to develop a single HFM-based unit, which can perform the dual functions: (1) growth of kidney cells on outer surface of HFMs, and (2) uremic toxin clearance, so that kidney functions desirable for survival of chronic kidney disease patients can be achieved. In this context, polyethersulfone (PES) HFMs containing optimized amount of graphene oxide (GO) were successfully developed. The uniform dispersion of GO in PES matrix was achieved with remarkably enhanced thermally stability. GO-doping also improved the hydrophilicity of the developed membranes. This resulted in low hemolysis (0.37 ± 0.15 %), prolonged coagulation times, and low SC5b-9 marker level (6.84 ± 1.7), i.e., significantly better compatibility with human blood in the lumen-side of the developed HFMs. The density of kidney cells attached and proliferated on the outer surface of the developed was also considerably higher than that on the undoped PES HFMs. The separation performance also remarkably enhanced with the addition of GO as high pure water permeability (154 ± 3 mL/m2/h/mmHg) was measured, and solute rejection profile was found to be similar to that of the commercial dialyzer membranes. The uremic toxins (urea, creatinine and phosphorous) clearance (in simulated blood) was also almost two-fold better than that of the undoped PES HFMs. Thus, these results indicated that the GO-doped PES HFMs, developed in this study, are a potential membrane material for BAK application.
References:
1. Modi, A., Verma, S.K. and Bellare, J., 2017. Graphene oxide nanosheets and d-α-Tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) doping improves biocompatibility and ultrafiltration in polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 504, pp.86-100.
2. Verma, S.K., Modi, A., Singh, A.K., Teotia, R. and Bellare, J., 2017. Improved hemodialysis with hemocompatible polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes: In vitro performance. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials. (Accepted).
3. Bellare, J.R., Modi, A., and Verma, S.K., 2017. Biocompatible polymerbased nanocomposite hollow fiber membranes for simultaneous/sequential cell culture and filtration and a process for manufacturing the same. Indian Patent Application No. 201721012547.
