Improvements of anticoagulant activities of silk fibroin films with fucoidan

Fucoidan (FC), an effective anticoagulant constituent extracted from brown algae, was introduced into silk fibroin (SF) for improving its blood compatibility. The SF and SF/FC blend films were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic contact angle determinator (CA). The in vitro anticoagulant activities of the films were evaluated by activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT) and prothrombin time (PT) measurements. The endothelial cell attachment and proliferation viability on the film were assessed by micropipette aspiration technique and MTT assay, respectively. The testing results indicated that the introduction of FC increased the roughness, hydrophilicity and sulfate component of the film surface without impeding the formation of β-sheet conformation in SF. More important, FC brought excellent anticoagulant activity and better endothelial cell affinity to SF. The SF/FC blend film was hopeful to be used as blood-contacting biomaterials.