In vitro and in vivo tests of nanoporous membrane coated with biocompatible fluorine-doped diamond-like carbon for hemofiltration treatment

Abstract

In this report, we experimentally investigated the blood hemofiltration capacity of a nanoporous dialysis membrane (poly(ether sulfone), PES) whose surface was modified with fluorine-doped diamond-like carbon(f-DLC). Surface modification of the nanoporous membrane without clogging the nanopores is challenging. In vitro experiments revealed that the modified membrane successfully exhibited water permeability of one-tenth of the untreated. In vivo experiments with ultra-small hemofiltration devices composed of f-DLC PES membranes using SD rats were also conducted for the first time. The results proved that the f-DLC coated PES membrane can be used for hemofiltration, which will extend the lifetime of microfluidics-based implantable artificial kidney.