Polyurethane tethering natural antibacterial substances for catheter applications

Antibacterial central venous catheters (CVC) have been in great demand in recent years. However, biomedical polyurethane (PU), the most used polymer for CVC extrusion, lacks antibacterial properties, surface coating after catheter extrusion or additives is generally required for fabricating antibacterial CVC. To develop antibacterial PU for CVC extrusion, a natural derived substance, benzoic acid, was thus grafted onto a PU with pendant alkynyl groups successfully through Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition click reaction in this research. The synthesized PU tethering benzoic acid (PUB) was fabricated into catheter which displays a suitable strength for CVC application. PUB tethering benzoic acid over 2 mmol/g has proved good antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus based on a bacterial colony forming units test, and bone mesenchymal stem cells proliferation on PUB also demonstrate good cell compatibilities, suggesting PUB a promising polymer for CVC extrusion.