Decoration of heparin and bovine serum albumin on polysulfone membrane assisted via polydopamine strategy for hemodialysis.

Renal failure brings about abnormality of waste and toxins and deposition in the body. In clinic, the waste and toxins in vitro are eliminated by hemodialysis device with polysulfone (PSF) porous membranes. In the work, decoration of heparin (Hep) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) on PSF membranes would be beneficial to improve the hemocompatibility and reduce the anaphylatoxin formation during hemodialysis. The PSF porous membranes are surface-modified by simply dipping them into dopamine aqueous solution for 8 h. Then, Hep and BSA are immobilized covalently onto the resultant membrane. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectra (ATR-FTIR) confirms that Hep and BSA are successfully introduced onto the surface of PSF membranes. Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) display the changes of surface morphologies after modification. The result of water contact angle measurement shows that the hydrophilicity of PSF membranes is remarkably improved after coating polydopamine (pDA) and binding Hep and BSA. The experiments of hemocompatibility indicate that Hep and BSA grafted onto membranes suppress the adhesion of platelet and enhance the anticoagulation ability of PSF membranes. Furthermore, the protein adsorption tests reveal that Hep and BSA immobilized onto membranes depress the protein absorption and develop antifouling-protein ability of pristine membrane. This study proves a convenient and simple approach to graft two functional organic polymers which, respectively, play a vital role and then improve the hemocompatibility and biocompatibility of PSF membranes for their biomedical and blood-contacting applications.