Association of polyacrylamide beads to polyethylene terephthalate prostheses.

A method for the coupling of polyacrylamide beads to polyethylene terephtalate (PET) vascular prostheses is described. The reactionnal procedure used is performed along several steps ; acrylic acid grafting on PET textile fibres, in order to introduce reactive carboxylic groups, introduction of terminal primary amine groups onto the beads, and then, attachment method which consists in coupling carboxylic groups of prostheses with amine groups of modified beads. The relative weight increase of the samples before and after the coupling reaction and, microscopic observations of beads distribution onto the prostheses surface demonstrate the binding feasibility of polyacrylamide matrices to PET prostheses. In the near future, authors expect to replace these beads by microcapsules with polyacrylamide wall and containing active compounds to improve the vascular prostheses biocompatibility.