title: Morphological Characterization of the Polyflux 210H Hemodialysis Filter Pores.
abstract: Background. Morphological characterization of hemodialysis membranes is necessary to improve pore design. Aim. To delineate membrane pore structure of a high flux filter, Polyflux 210H. Methods. We used a Joel JSM-6010LV scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a SU6600 Hitachi field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) to characterize the pore and fiber morphology. The maximal diameters of selected uremic toxins were calculated using the macromolecular modeling Crystallographic Object-Oriented Toolkit (COOT) software. Results. The mean pore densities on the outermost and innermost surfaces of the membrane were 36.81% and 5.45%, respectively. The membrane exhibited a tortuous structure with poor connection between the inner and outer pores. The aperture's width in the inner surface ranged between 34 and 45 nm, which is 8.76-11.60 times larger than the estimated maximum diameter of β2-microglobulin (3.88 nm). Conclusion. The results suggest that the diameter size of inner pore apertures is not a limiting factor to middle molecules clearance, the extremely diminished density is. Increasing inner pore density and improving channel structure are strategies to improve clearance of middle molecules.
authors.affiliation: College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan, 105 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7N 5E4.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hedayat
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Szpunar
authors.forename: N A P Kiran
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Peace
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Elmoselhi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shoker