Unveiling the main factors triggering the coagulation at the SiC-blood interface

Abstract

Hemocompatibility is the most significant criterion for blood-contacting materials in successful in vivo applications. Prior to the clinical tests, in vitro analyses must be performed on the biomaterial surfaces in accordance with the ISO 10993-4 standards. Designing a bio-functional material requires engineering the surface structure and chemistry, which significantly influence the blood cell activity according to earlier studies. In this study, we elucidate the role of surface terminations and polymorphs of SiC single crystals in the initial stage of the contact coagulation. We present a detailed analysis of phase, roughness, surface potential, wettability, consequently, reveal their effect on cytotoxicity and hemocompatibility by employing live/dead stainings, live cell imaging, ELISA and Micro BCA protein assay. Our results showed that the surface potential and the wettability strongly depend on the crystallographic polymorph as well as the surface termination. We show, for the first time, the key role of SiC surface termination on platelet activation. This dependency is in good agreement with the results of our in vitro analysis and points out the prominence of cellular anisotropy. We anticipate that our experimental findings bridge the surface properties to the cellular activities, and therefore, pave the way for tailoring advanced hemocompatible surfaces.