Ted Reid, Phat Tran, Khiem Tran, Courtney Jarvis, Saurabh Patel, Abdul Hamood ? Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Thomas Mosley, Robert Hanes ? Selenium Ltd.

Mayank Shashtri ? Eburon Organics International

Organo-selenium compounds attached to different biomaterials have been shown to inhibit bacterial attachment. In the past the selenium was attached to the surface of different medical devices. This surface inhibited bacterial attachment, yet had no effect upon the surrounding tissue. However, in some cases it is important to be able to incorporate the selenium directly into the material of the device. With selenium integrated as part of the polymer, there is more structural stability since wear on the device would not remove selenium from the surface, thereby maintaining its function of preventing bacteria from binding to the new underlying surface. In addition from a manufacturing standpoint it would be a simple process to add selenium at the time the polymer is produced, rather than later as a second step.

We have produced two types of polymers. One is a methacrylate where selenium is attached to the methacrylic monomer and then allowed to polymerize into the body of the polymer. The second is polyurethane where selenium is attached to one of the two types of monomers used in the synthesis of the polymer. In this case selenium was attached to the diol monomer, which could then react with the diisocyanate. Since many different diols, as well as different diisocyanates can be used, almost an infinite number of different polyurethanes can be produced.

Results showed that both polymers inhibited bacterial attachment to the polymer and were stable over extended periods of time.