Fabrication of microporous polyurethane by spray phase inversion method as small diameter vascular grafts material.

Microporous polyurethane vascular prostheses with a 4 mm diameter and 0.3-0.4 mm wall thickness were fabricated by a spray phase inversion technique. In this study, the effect of distance between spray guns (SG) and rotating mandrel (RM), the effect of rate of rotating mandrel (RRM), and the type of nonsolvent on pore morphology of PU films were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. It was observed that when the distance between SG and RM was increased or the rate of RM was decreased, the porosity of PU films increased and consequently the tensile strength decreased and compliance value increased. Compliance was measured in vitro by volume and vessel diameter changes. Furthermore, when the coagulant (water) was changed to the water/methanol, the porosity of PU film increased and porous morphology changed to filamentous morphology. Attachment of anchorage dependent cells, namely L929 fibroblast cells, were investigated in stationary culture conditions. The cells adhesion and cells growth were studied using optical photomicrographs. The results show that by increasing the porosity content of PU films would consequently increase the cell ingrowths. Copyright (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.