Electrospun polyacrylonitrile/halloysite nanofibrous membranes for creatinine removal from kidney failure patients

Abstract

Innovative hemodialysis membranes are essential for hemodialysis process, the vital clinical treatment for patients with kidney failure. In the present study, for the first time halloysite nanotubes (Hal) were applied to adsorb creatinine through molecular sieve mechanism. Firstly, calcination process performed to improve the affinity of Hal for creatinine. Afterwards, eight different composite polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membranes containing two types of Hal including raw Hal (RHAL) and calcined Hal (CHAL) were developed via an electrospinning device (10, 20, 30 and 40 wt%). Morphological analysis revealed that, with low contents of Hal (10 and 20 wt%), the structural integrity of nanofibers was  maintained. However, with the high contents of Hal (30 and 40 wt%), structural integrity of nanofibers was affected and conical beads were formed. The mechanical properties and hydrophilicities of the composite PAN based membranes were higher than pure PAN based membrane and improved by increasing Hal contents up to 20 wt% and then reduced. Therefore, among the composite PAN based membranes, the membranes loaded with 10 and 20 wt% of Hal were selected for further evaluations. Adsorption studies showed that the composite PAN based membrane loaded with 20 wt% of CHAL had best performance with >70% of creatinine removal. The MTT assay also presented; the highest cell viability about 90% for the same membrane. Blood compatibility of the membranes for both bovine serum albumin (BSA) surface adsorption and platelet adhesion revealed that the composite PAN membranes were significantly more blood compatible than the polyethersulfone (PES) commercial and pure PAN based membranes. As a result, composite PAN based membrane loaded with 20 wt% of CHAL which combines adsorption and traditional mechanism, seems promising for hemodialysis membranes.