Tough, Antibacterial, and Antithrombogenic Hydrogel Coatings for Blood-Contacting Silicone Medical Devices

Silicone medical devices are widely used as various medical devices due to their excellent advantages when compared with petroleum-derived polymers. Thrombosis and bacterial infections are two vital challenges of blood-contacting silicone devices. The traditional strategies used for contact antibacterial silicone typically facilitate thrombosis due to electrostatic interactions. To solve this dilemma, we presented the design of a UV-curable hydrogel coating with the synergistic effect of zwitterion and antibacterial components to endow the silicone catheter with both antibacterial and antithrombotic performance. The strong hydration characteristics of poly(sulfobetaine) (pSB) endow the hydrogel-coated surface with excellent repulsion against coagulation, shielding the interaction of xylitol and cefuroxime sodium. This design prevents the bactericides from forming strong interactions with blood cells while preserving the long-lasting antibacterial performance. The poly(xylitol-sulfobetaine-cefuroxime sodium) (pXASBCS) coating can maintain favorable antibacterial performance against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus after 3 weeks. Promisingly, the pXASBCS coating not only showed low toxicity and high hemocompatibility but also prevented the formation of thrombi. The New Zealand white rabbits' arteriovenous shunt model shows that the surface-induced coagulation tendency is reduced when using a pXASBCS-coated catheter in ex vivo rabbit blood circulation.