Abstract
In these days several kinds of plasma separators have been developed and become commercially available. While almost all hollow fibers are made by wet process, we developed new polyethylene (PE) hollow fiber plasma separator using dry process (melt spinning method). The evaluations for the new hollow fibers were carried out by in vitro studies on biocompatibility, hemolysis and protein sieving properties. It is interest that the critical transmembrane pressure to avoid hemolysis was very high in PE fiber as compared with the conventional hollow fibers. SEM studies showed the difference of the shape of the pore among the hollow fibers by wet process or dry process and it is concluded that slit shape of the new PE hollow fibers minimizes hemolysis.
