Biocompatibility of a-C:H film coating for synthetic vascular graft

Amorphous hydrogenated carbon (a-C:H) films have many excellent properties such as biocompatibility, anti-corrosion, and chemical stability. Therefore, there are many reports on application of a-C:H film as surface modification technique for biomaterials. However, it is difficult to deposit a-C:H film on complex structures such as artificial heart blood pump and synthetic vascular grafts. In our previous work, we have developed an electrode which is adapted to such irregular structures for plasma CVD technique. In this study, a-C:H film was deposited on a synthetic vascular graft inner-wall by r.f. plasma CVD technique with cylindrical electrode. The purpose of such coating is improvement of biocompatibility of the vascular graft. The biocompatibility of the a-C:H film was evaluated by cytocompatibility and plasma protein adhesion. For the a-C:H film deposition, cytocompatibility and protein adsorbent of the vascular grafts were improved for biological response under cell culture with mouth fibroblasts and plasma proteins (albumin, fibrinogen, and globulin), respectively. This study indicates that the a-C:H films coatings is expected to surface modification for medical appliances.