High flux novel polymeric membrane for renal applications.

Biocompatibility and the ability to mediate the appropriate flux of ions, urea, and uremic toxins between blood and dialysate components are key parameters for membranes used in dialysis. Oxone-mediated TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanomaterials have been demonstrated to be excellent additives in the production and tunability of ultrafiltration and dialysis membranes. In the present study, nanocellulose ionic liquid membranes (NC-ILMs) were tested in vitro and ex vivo. An increase in flux of up to two orders of magnitude was observed with increased rejection (about 99.6%) of key proteins compared to that of polysulfone (PSf) and other commercial membranes. NC-ILMs have a sharper molecular weight cut-off than other phase inversion polymeric membranes, allowing for high throughput of urea and a uremic toxin surrogate and limited passage of proteins in dialysis applications. Superior anti-fouling properties were also observed for the NC-ILMs, including a > 5-h operation time with no systemic anticoagulation in blood samples. Finally, NC-ILMs were found to be biocompatible in rat ultrafiltration and dialysis experiments, indicating their potential clinical utility in dialysis and other blood filtration applications. These superior properties may allow for a new class of membranes for use in a wide variety of industrial applications, including the treatment of patients suffering from renal disease.

Development of an Integrated Salt Cartridge-Reverse Electrodialysis (Red) Device to Increase Electrolyte Concentrations to Biomedical Devices.

Emerging technologies in nanotechnology and biomedical engineering have led to an increase in the use of implantable biomedical devices. These devices are currently battery powered which often means they must be surgically replaced during a patient's lifetime. Therefore, there is an important need for a power source that could provide continuous, stable power over a prolonged time. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) based biopower cells have been previously used to generate continuous power from physiologically relevant fluids; however, the low salinity gradient that exists within the body limited the performance of the biopower cell. In this study, a miniaturized RED biopower cell design coupled with a salt cartridge was evaluated for boosting the salt concentration gradient supplied to RED in situ. For the salt cartridge, polysulfone (PSf) hollow fibers were prepared in-house and saturated with NaCl solutions to deliver salt and thereby enhance the concentration gradient. The effect of operational parameters including solution flow rate and cartridge salt concentration on salt transport performance was evaluated. The results demonstrated that the use of the salt cartridge was able to increase the salt concentration of the RED inlet stream by 74% which in turn generated a 3-fold increase in the open circuit voltage (OCV) of the biopower cell. This innovative adaptation of the membrane-based approach into portable power generation could help open new pathways in various biomedical applications.

Self-assembly behavior of the keratose proteins extracted from oxidized Ovis aries wool fibers.

Water soluble keratose proteins were obtained from an Ovis Aries wool using peracetic acid oxidation. The wool samples and the extracted keratose proteins were characterized by using FTIR, XRD, SEM and TGA techniques. Fractions of α-keratose (MW = 43-53 kDa) along with protein species with molecular weights between 23 kDa and 33 kDa were identified in the SDS-PAGE analysis result of the extracted protein mixture. DLS and AFM experiments indicated that self-assembled globular nanoparticles with diameters between 15 nm and 100 nm formed at 5 mg/ml keratose concentration. On the other hand, upon incubation of 10 w % keratose solutions at 37 °C and 50 °C, interconnected keratose hydrogels with respective storage modulus (G') values of 0.17 ±â€¯0.03 kPa and 3.7 ±â€¯0.5 kPa were obtained. It was shown that the keratose hydrogel prepared at 37 °C supported L929 mouse fibroblast cell proliferation which suggested that these keratose hydrogels could be promising candidates in soft tissue engineering applications.