Blood interaction with nano-topography

The work concerns the study of blood behavior on nanostructured polymer surfaces under flow conditions. The authors use the demixing behavior of an immiscible polymer blend to create structured polymer films whose typical feature size ranging from the nanometer to the micrometer. Micro-fluidic chips are coated with these films. Blood interaction with these surfaces is evaluated in terms of platelet adhesion using human whole blood, while platelet poor plasma is used to investigate protein adsorption. The studies indicate that increasing the feature size of the surface nano-structures encourages von Willebrand factor adsorption and thus platelet adhesion and consequent thrombus formation.