Carnivorous Plant Inspires Anticlotting Medical Devices

By copying aspects of the slick surfaces of insect-catching pitcher plants, researchers created tubes that can carry blood without promoting the formation of blood clots or bacterial attachment. Cynthia Graber reports. October 15, 2014 | |

Medical devices like or external machines keep people alive. But persistent problems exist. Blood flowing through the tubes can form dangerous clots. And bacteria that stick to surfaces could start infections.

Treatment for patients using such devices thus often includes anti-clotting agents such as heparin. But such substances have their own risk: by interfering with clotting, they can cause potentially deadly bleeding.

Recently, researchers at the looked to the carnivorous pitcher plant for guidance. The plant’s structure includes wells with surfaces too slippery for insects to crawl out of. Those surfaces inspired the development of a coating so slippery that it prevents blood and bacteria from sticking.

The team tested the coating on the interiors of tubes and catheters attached to pigs. They demonstrated that the coating did not degrade, and that blood kept flowing without clotting, for eight hours. Blood usually starts to clot in tubes in an hour. The study is in the journal Nature Biotechnology. [Daniel C. Leslie et al, ]

The researchers also tested whether a could latch onto the coating with its notoriously . But not even the gecko could get a grip.

—Cynthia Graber