Polymers antithrombogenic activity

Blood-compatible polymer materials are required to inhibit both platelet adhesion and coagulation just as the endothelial on the polymer surface. It is known that there are many investigations in the design and the synthesis of socalled antithrombogenic materials. The immobilization of biologically active substances such as heparin [74, 75], urokinase [76], and prostaglandins [77-81] is one of the practical approaches. 

In order that the heparin remain biologically active after fixation to a polymer substrate, the covalent bond must be achieved via functional groups on the heparin molecule, which are non-essential for its biological activity. Further, the binding reaction should be performed under reaction conditions which themselves do not cause loss of the antithrombogenic character of the heparin. 

In recent years, a great deal of effort has been devoted to the study of antithrombogenic polymers (1-3).It has been shown in the present authors laboratory (4-7) that modified insoluble polystyrenes substituted either with sulfonate or amino acid sulfamide groups, exhibit anticoagulant activity, when suspended in plasma. This property can be attributed to the adsorption of thrombin and antithrombin III, at the plasma-polymer interfaces (7-9). 

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