Preparation and performances of coated polypropylene hernia mesh with natural biomaterials

Polypropylene (PP) hernia repair mesh has gained much attention due to its low cost, cost-efficiency, stable chemical properties and excellent properties. However, its lack of biocompatibility has greatly limited its clinical application, and different complications such as chronic pain and foreign body reaction are usually found after implantation. Chitosan (CS) and sodium alginate (SA) are among the most exploited naturally derived biomaterials with excellent biocompatibility. Therefore, plasma-treated PP meshes were combined with CS or SA to address these issues in this study. The results demonstrated that the hydrophilicity of the coated meshes exhibited a significant increase. Moreover, the two-component hernia repair meshes created a favorable environment for cell attachment with higher cell proliferation than PP mesh. This work provides insights on the use of naturally biocompatible materials as a potential coating on PP meshes to provide favorable conditions for cell adhesion and growth.