Antifouling zwitterionic hydrogel coating improves hemocompatibility of activated carbon hemoadsorbent

Activated carbon has been widely used in hemoperfusion treatments. However, its performance has been significantly compromised by their poor hemocompatibility. In this work, we developed a novel antifouling adsorbent based on zwitterionic poly-carboxybetaine (PCB) hydrogel and powdered activated carbon (PAC) to improve hemocompatibility. We found this new adsorbent (PCB-PAC) was highly stable with negligible leakage of activated carbon debris. It could efficiently resist protein adsorption and avoid any hemolysis effect. The adsorption performance of PCB-PAC for methylene blue was not influenced in a single protein solution or even in 100% fetal bovine serum (FBS), in which pristine PAC lost 50% of its adsorption ability. The isotherms results showed that the adsorption process of PCB-PAC fitted the Langmuir isotherm well, indicating that the PAC particles were homogenously distributed in the PCB hydrogel matrix. Moreover, PCB-PAC could also adsorb bilirubin molecules bound to albumin in solution, while pristine PAC showed no discernible adsorption effect. Findings in this work hold great potential to significantly improve the performance and efficiency of current extracorporeal devices for removing toxins from blood directly.