Initial events in interactions of blood with a foreign surface

Abstract

The nature of the events occurring immediately after exposing foreign surfaces to fresh flowing blood was assessed using a combination of MAIR infrared spectroscopy, ellipsometry, and contact angle measurements. Within the first 5 sec after contact with blood issuing from the jugular veins of lightly anesthesized dogs, germanium prisms were uniformly coated with strongly adherent proteinaceous filsm having an average optical thickness equivalent to 2 layers of stearic acid (approx. 50 Å) and having critical surface tensions of about 36 dyne/cm. A contact time of 60 sec led to a less uniform coating of average optical thickness equivalent to 5 layers of stearic acid (approx. 125 A), but with similar MAIR spectrum and wettability. The internal refelection spectra were consistent with the presence of either alpha‐helical or random‐chain configurations, but not with the extended chain beta‐structure for proteins. Films cast from purified fibrinogen on platinum foils gave similar spectra and exhibited similar wetting properties; these observations are consistent with the hypotehsis that initial adsorptive events are dominated by fibrinogen deposition. The involvement of small amounts of lipid or other protein remains a distinct possibility, however.