A biocompatible dual-sided hernia mesh with side-specific properties

Polypropylene (PP) based hernia mesh often shows multiple post-surgery complications due to lack of biocompatibility, poor cell attachment, and unwanted tissue adhesion. These limitations can be addressed by material designing and surface modification of a mesh with side-specific properties such as the visceral side (facing intestine) with low protein and cell attachment and the parietal side (facing incision) with improved cell attachment properties for normal healing. However, the development of dual-sided mesh is very challenging because of its porous structure. Herein, a dual-sided biocompatible mesh with protein anti-adsorption and cell attachment properties on two different sides is developed by grafting highly hydrophilic 2-methcryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine polymer (PMPC) on the plasma-activated visceral side, while the parietal side is coated with bioactive chitosan and functionalized nanodiamond (Chi/FND) using a temporary polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) mold. The PMPC-grafted side demonstrated excellent resistance to protein adsorption (96% reduction compared to PP) and cell attachment. However, the bioactive coating on the parietal side has significantly improved cell attachment and proliferation properties. In addition, both sides confirmed the presence of the respective biomaterials after an accelerated degradation study for 28 days. Hence, the newly developed dual-sided mesh by semi-solid polymer mold (SSPM) method is a promising candidate to address the long-existing multiple issues of hernia mesh.