School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Birck Nanotechnology Canter, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Nanoscale. 2023 Jul 6;15(26):11209-11221. doi: 10.1039/d3nr01317k.
Surgical meshes composed of bioinert polymers such as polypropylene are widely used in millions of hernia repair procedures to prevent the recurrence of organ protrusion from the damaged abdominal wall. However, post-operative mesh infection remains a significant complication, elevating hernia recurrence risks from 3.6% to 10%, depending on the procedure type. While attempts have been made to mitigate these infection-related complications by using antibiotic coatings, the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains threatens their effectiveness. Bioactive glass-ceramics featuring noble metals, notably silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), have recently gained traction for their wide antibacterial properties and biocompatibility. Yet, conventional methods of synthesizing and coating of such materials often require high temperatures, thus making them impractical to be implemented on temperature-sensitive polymeric substrates. To circumvent this challenge, a unique approach has been explored to deposit these functional compounds onto temperature-sensitive polypropylene mesh (PP-M) surfaces. This approach is based on the recent advancements in cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) assisted deposition of SiO thin films and laser surface treatment (LST), enabling the selective heating and formation of functional glass-ceramic compounds under atmospheric conditions. A systematic study was conducted to identify optimal LST conditions that resulted in the effective formation of a bioactive glass-ceramic structure without significantly altering the chemical and mechanical properties of the underlying PP-M (less than 1% change compared to the original properties). The developed coating with optimized processing conditions demonstrated high biocompatibility and persistent antibacterial properties (>7 days) against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The developed process is expected to provide a new stepping stone towards depositing a wide range of functional bioceramic coatings onto different implant surfaces, thereby decreasing their risk of infection and associated complications.
由生物惰性聚合物（如聚丙烯）制成的外科网片被广泛应用于数百万例疝修补术中，以防止器官从受损的腹壁突出。然而，术后网片感染仍然是一个严重的并发症，使疝复发的风险从 3.6%上升到 10%，具体取决于手术类型。虽然已经尝试通过使用抗生素涂层来减轻这些与感染相关的并发症，但抗生素耐药菌的出现威胁到了它们的有效性。具有贵金属（尤其是银纳米粒子 (AgNP)）的生物活性玻璃陶瓷最近因其广泛的抗菌性能和生物相容性而受到关注。然而，这些材料的传统合成和涂层方法通常需要高温，因此在对温度敏感的聚合物基底上实施这些方法不太实际。为了克服这一挑战，人们探索了一种独特的方法，即将这些功能性化合物沉积到对温度敏感的聚丙烯网（PP-M）表面上。这种方法基于冷等离体体（CAP）辅助沉积 SiO 薄膜和激光表面处理（LST）的最新进展，能够在大气条件下选择性加热和形成功能性玻璃陶瓷化合物。进行了一项系统研究，以确定最佳的 LST 条件，这些条件可有效形成生物活性玻璃陶瓷结构，而不会显著改变底层 PP-M 的化学和机械性能（与原始性能相比变化小于 1%）。用优化的处理条件开发的涂层表现出良好的生物相容性和持久的抗菌性能（超过 7 天），对革兰氏阳性菌和革兰氏阴性菌均有效。预计该工艺将为在不同植入物表面沉积各种功能性生物陶瓷涂层提供新的契机，从而降低其感染风险和相关并发症。
