Urease immobilized GO core@shell heparin-mimicking polymer beads with safe and effective urea removal for blood purification

Adsorbents are usually used to remove uremic toxins for blood purification. However, the removal of urea is still an intractable problem, since no effective material has been found for urea removal by physical adsorption. Here, urease immobilized graphene oxide core@shell heparin-mimicking polymer (U-GO-HMP) beads were designed, which exhibited good urea removal ability with a removal amount of about 635 mg/g and a removal ratio of about 80% from urea solution. In addition, urea could be removed from collected dialysate and the removal ratio could reach 60% within 480 min. Beyond that, the U-GO-HMP beads also showed good reusability with sustainable relative activity after 5 cycles. Furthermore, the U-GO-HMP beads exhibited good blood compatibility with low hemolysis ratio, suppressed complement activation and contact activation, as well as increased clotting times. It is worthy believing that the U-GO-HMP beads may have great potential in the field of blood purification for urea removal. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.