Bacterial cellulose (BC) and fibrin are potential materials for artificial blood vessel (BV) applications. Yet each has shortcomings with their mechanical properties when compared to the native BV. To address the shortcomings, BC/fibrin composites with varied compositions were produced. The BC/fibrin composites were further treated with glutaraldehyde in order to crosslink the polymers and allow better match of the mechanical properties with those of native BV. Tensile and viscoelastic properties of the composites were determined from tensile static tests and cyclic creep tests. Glutaraldehyde-treated BC/fibrin composites exhibited comparable tensile strength and modulus with reference small-diameter BV.  The cyclic creep test also indicated that glutaraldehyde-treated composites had comparable time-dependent viscoelastic behavior with native BV. A long strain hardening plateau was induced by glutaraldehyde treatment which resembled the stress-strain response of native BV.  Covalent bonding between BC and fibrin occurred via glutaraldehyde, affording mechanical properties comparable to the native small BV.

Engineering the viscoelasticity of bacterial cellulose/fibrin nanocomposites for artificial blood vessel applications

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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