Assessment of hemocompatibility of materials with arterial blood flow by platelet functional tests

Hemocompatibility test of medical materials aims to detect adverse interaction between artificial surface and blood, which can activate or destruct blood components. In arterial flow conditions, due to a high shear stress, platelet is the cell critical for the hemocompatibility compliance. A classical instrumentation for the dynamic test of hemocompatibility involves a flow chamber with a contact surface between blood stream and tested plate. In the current study we investigated a simplified model of the whole blood shear stress, based on a cone and plate rotational viscometer. Several indices of platelet activation were analyzed, including platelet- and granulocyte-platelet aggregates, platelet activation markers and platelet-derived microparticles. This model allowed to estimate platelet destruction, however no adhesion could be measured directly. In following tests of several polymer and metallic layer coated materials, the test revealed comparable performance to more laborious hemocompatibility experiments. We suggest, that thrombogenic potential of platelet-derived microparticles, which can be accurately measured in blood plasma, offers very useful estimate of hemocompatibility. Moreover, this parameter has already been validated in clinics and could be used for monitoring of implanted cardiovascular materials.