Fibrin glue is a two-component adhesive used to stop bleeding, seal wound edges and for scaffolds in tissue engineering. Autologous products result in reduced risk of contamination and immunological responses compared to commercially available fibrin glue. However, reproducibility due to patient dependent sealant properties of autologous fibrin glue preparation is low. In this study a fully automated production process for both the fibrinogen and thrombin component from small blood volumes was developed. The resulting fibrinogen concentration, thrombin activity and sealant properties of the fibrin glue were determined. The fully automated and closed production system proved to be a promising tool for fast and easy production of autologous fibrin glue with an effective adhesive quality.
Thrombocytes can be concentrated in blood derivatives and used as autologous transplants e.g. for wound treatment due to the release of growth factors such as platelet derived growth factor (PDGF). Conditions for processing and storage of these platelet-rich blood derivatives influence the release of PDGF from the platelet-bound α-granules into the plasma. In this study Platelet rich plasma (PRP) and Platelet concentrate (PC) were produced with a fully automated centrifugation system. Storage of PRP and PC for 1 h up to 4 months at temperatures between −20°C and +37°C was applied with the aim of evaluating the influence on the amount of released PDGF. Storage at −20°C resulted in the highest release of PDGF in PRP and a time dependency was determined: prolonged storage up to 1 month in PRP and 10 days in PC increased the release of PDGF. Regardless of the storage conditions, the release of PDGF per platelet was higher in PC than in PRP.
Microscale porous membranes are used in a wide range of technical and medical applications such as water treatment, dialysis and in vitro test systems. A promising approach to control membrane properties and overcome limitations of conventional fabrication techniques is given by additive manufacturing (AM). In this study, we designed and printed a microporous membrane via digital light processing and validated its use for biomedical in vitro applications based on the example of a cell culture insert. A multi-layer technique was developed, resulting in an eight-layer membrane with an average pore diameter of 25 µm. Image analyses proved the printing accuracy to be high with small deviations for an increasing number of layers. Permeability tests with brilliant blue FCF (E133, triarylmethane dye) and growth factors comparing the printed to track-etched membranes showed similar transfer dynamics and confirmed sufficient separation properties. Overall, the results showed that printing microporous polymer membranes is possible and highlight the potential of AM for biomedical in vitro applications such as cell culture inserts, scaffolds for tissue engineering or bioreactors.
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