A new photopolymerizable blood vessel glue that seals human vessel anastomoses without augmenting thrombogenicity

A new nonbiologic photopolymerizable glue, polyeth-yleneglycol 400 diacrylate, was studied with respect to its mechanical and biochemical interaction with human blood vessels. Using the human placental artery model, we tested the ability of polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate to prevent leakage of blood at the site of vascular anastomoses, which are made porous by the presence of tissue gaps and suture puncture sites. Fibrin glue is known to augment local vessel thrombogenicity through the presence of the coagulation enzyme thrombin. We tested the effect of externally applied polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate (which does not contain thrombin) on luminal thrombin activity and platelet deposition from flowing human blood. At a shear rate of 312 per second and a transmural pressure of 80 cm H20, the leakage rate of saline from human placental artery anastomoses was 1.0 ± 1.2ml/min (n = 8). When the same anastomoses were then glued, 7 of 8 of the anastomoses leaked less than 0.05 ml/min (p< 0.05). Platelet deposition to human vessels was not influenced by the external application of polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate either on in tact vessels (no polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 0.51 ± 0.28 X 106 platelets/cm2; with polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 0.47 ± 0.26 X 106 platelets/ cm2; n = 7) or at anastomoses (no polyediyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 0.69 ± 0.36 X 10t5 platelets/cm2; with polyeth-yleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 0.53 ± 0.33 X 106 platelets/ cm2; n = 8), p > 0.05. Luminal thrombin activity, measured as the rate of fibrinopeptide A formation, was similarly unchanged from control whether polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate was applied to intact vessels (no polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 19 ± 13 ng fibrinopeptide A/ml; with polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 15 ± 13 ng fibrinopeptide A/ml; n = 10) or to anastomoses (no polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 15 ± 12 ng fibrinopeptide A/ml; with polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate, 15 ± 14 ng fibrinopeptide A/ml; n = 10), p > 0.05. We conclude that polyethyleneglycol 400 diacrylate is able to effectively seal vessel puncture sites and anastomotic junctions without acutely augmenting local vascular thrombogenicity. The absence of biologic components and of a need for local delivery of thrombin (as occurs when fibrin glue is used) should prompt additional study of this novel glue.