Acoustics of blood plasma on solid surfaces

We have quantified surface associated coagulation of human blood plasma with a recently developed methodological system consisting of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), a method that measures the weight of adsorbed molecules on surfaces as a function of frequency shifts of a quartz crystal. Further, it measures the damping energy (i.e. viscoelasticity) of the adsorbed layer. Four different surfaces where studied: Heparin (Hep) surface as an active inhibitor of clot formation, titanium (Ti) surfaces that are known to activate the intrinsic pathway, polystyrene (PS) surfaces and poly(urethane urea) (PUUR) surfaces. The experiments were initiated by applying citrated human plasma at the sensor surfaces; calcium was then added to initiate coagulation. The Hep surfaces showed no apparent indication of clot formation during one hour of incubation at room temperature. However, on Ti surfaces we observed an early and rapid change in both frequency shift and viscoelastic properties of the coagulating plasma. We inhibited the intrinsic pathway activation by using corn trypsin inhibitor (CTI), which is specific for factor FXIIa in the bulk phase, which prolonged the coagulation times for all non-heparinized surfaces. We have also found a peculiar initial plasma protein interaction phenomenon on Ti surfaces. The described methodology would be very efficient for basic studies of surface associated coagulation and as a screening method for new biomaterials.