AUTIMICROBIAL IMPREGNATION OF SILICONE RUBBER

SILICONE RUBBER AND OTHER ARTIFICIAL MATERIALS WHICH CONTACT BODY TISSUES SOMETIMES IRRIRATE THE TISSUES CAUSING UNWANTED REACTION IN THE BODY. IN SBIR PHASE I, TREATMENTS WHICH MINIMIZE THESE EFFECTS WILL BE GIVEN PRELIMINARY SCREENING. THE TREATMENTS INCLUDE CHEMICAL PROCEDURES FOR PROTECTING THE SURFACE OF THE POLYMERIC MATERIALS AGAINST TISSUES ENCAPSULATION, CHANGES IN LOCAL VASCULARITY, INFECTIONS, AND THROMBOGENICITY. IN VITRO TESTS, AS WELL AS ANIMAL TESTS (PRIMARILY RATS), WILL BE CONDUCTED, COMPARING THE UNTREATED AND THE TREATED MATERIALS. IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE MATERIALS THAT HAVE BEEN TREATED WILL BE BETTER ACCEPTED BY THE ANIMAL MODEL TISSUES THAN WOULD BE THE SAME MATERIALS UNTREATED. IN PHASE II, THE RESULTS OF PHASE I WILL BE EXTENDED AND QUANTIFIED, LEADING TO CLINICAL EXPERIMENTS IN WHICH THE MOST PROMISING OF THE TREATMENTS THAT WERE DEVELOPED IN PHASE I WILL BE EVALUATED FOR APPLICATIONS IN HUMANS.