Improved hemodialysis with hemocompatible polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes: In vitro performance

We show that addition of nanozeolite (NZ) and vitamin E D-α-Tocopherol polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS or T) considerably improves the performance of polyethersulfone (PES or P) hollow fiber membrane (HFM) for hemodialysis. Nanocomposite HFMs were manufactured using PES as a polymer, TPGS as an additive and NZ as a filler to give a composite membrane called PT-NZ. HFMs were spun by dry-wet spinning principle based on liquid-liquid phase separation. TPGS and NZ were successfully incorporated in HFMs, as confirmed by EDX elemental mapping. The resultant PT-NZ HFMs had improved hemocompatibility: lower percent hemolysis (0.28% in batch mode and 0.32% in continuous mode), lower platelet adhesion, higher coagulation time and lower protein adsorption (16.34 µg/cm² ), compared with P, PT, and commercial (F60S) HFMs. The ultrafiltration coefficient of PT-NZ HFM-based module (274.59 mL/m² /h/mmHg) was ∼1.5-times higher than that of F60S membranes (151.67 mL/m² /h/mmHg), and the solute rejection of both the membranes was comparable. The toxin clearance performance of lab-scale PT-NZ HFM-based hemodialyzer with uremic toxin spiked goat blood was remarkably higher (five times) than that of F60S. Hence, the synthesized PT-NZ HFMs are a potentially attractive membrane material for hemodialysis application, particularly due to decreased treatment time and minimal side reactions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1286-1298, 2018.