ALD coated polypropylene hernia meshes for prevention of mesh-related post-surgery complications: an experimental study in animals.

In this work, thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) was used to synthesize vanadium (V)-doped TiOthin nanofilm on polypropylene (PP) hernia meshes. Multiple layers of (AlO+ TiVO) nano-films were coated on the PP hernia mesh surface to provide a layer with a total thickness of 38 nm to improve its antibacterial properties, thereby, prevent mesh-related post-surgery complications. Highly conformal V-doped TiOnanofilm were deposited on PP mesh at a temperature of 85 °C. Rats and rabbits have been used to evaluate the tissue reaction on coated PP hernia meshes and biomechanical testing of the healed tissue. Five rabbits and ten rats have been implanted with ALD coated and uncoated (control) PP meshes into the back of rats and abdominal wall of rabbits. Histology of the mesh-adjacent tissues and electron microscopy of the explanted mesh surface were performed to characterize host tissue response to the implanted PP meshes. The effect of V-doped TiOcoating on a living organism and fibroblast functions and bacterial activities were studied. The present results indicated that ALD coating improves adhesion properties and exhibited enhanced antibacterial activity compared to uncoated PP mesh. It was shown that V-doped TiOcoatings were highly effective in inhibitingandadhesion and exhibited excellent antibacterial activity. We found that V-doping of TiO, unlike bare TiO, allows generated and further procured strong redox reactions which effectively kills bacteria under visible light. We have reported comparative analysis of the use of undoped (bare) TiOand V-doped TiOas a coating for PP meshes and their action in biological environment and preventing biofilms formation compared with uncoated PP meshes. The PP meshes coated with V-doped TiOshowed significantly lower shrinkage rates compared with an identical PP mesh without a coating. We have shown that ALD coatings provide non-adhesive and functional (antibacterial) properties.