The invention relates to the providing of hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymer-based hollow fiber membranes containing a water-insoluble antioxidant; in particular, the invention relates to the providing of hollow fiber membranes for the extracorporeal treatment of blood, wherein the hollow fiber membranes have improved biocompatibility relative to treatment blood, in particular improved complement activation and lower platelet loss vis--vis treatment blood. At the same time, the elution of hydrophilic polymers from the lumen of the hollow fiber membrane is reduced.

A whole blood hollow fiber membrane filter medium is made of a polymeric material having pores of a pore size that ensures permeability to blood plasma or serum but retains blood cells. The whole blood hollow fiber membrane filter medium is used for filtering a whole blood sample so that blood plasma or serum passes through the whole blood hollow fiber membrane filter medium and blood cells are retained. The obtained blood plasma shows no hemolysis.

A virus removal membrane is formed from cellulose, in which, when a solution containing gold colloids having a diameter of 20 nm is applied through a primary surface to the virus removal membrane to allow the virus removal membrane to capture the gold colloids for measurement of brightness in a cross section of the virus removal membrane, a value obtained by dividing a standard deviation of a value of an area of a spectrum of variation in the brightness by an average of the value of the area is 0.01 or more and 1.5 or less; and a thickness of a portion, where gold colloids having a diameter of 20 nm or more and 30 nm or less are captured, in the cross section of the virus removal membrane in a wet state is 10.0 m or more and 30.0 m or less.

The present disclosure relates to semipermeable membranes which are suitable for blood purification, e.g. by hemodialysis, which have an increased ability to remove larger molecules while at the same time effectively retaining albumin. The membranes are characterized by a molecular retention onset (MWRO) of between 9.0 kD and 14.5 kD and a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of between 55 kD and 130 kD as determined by dextran sieving curves and can be prepared by industrially feasible processes excluding a treatment with salt before drying. The invention therefore also relates to a process for the production of the membranes and to their use in medical applications.

The present disclosure relates to a dialyzer comprising a bundle of semipermeable hollow fiber membranes which is suitable for blood purification, wherein the dialyzer has an increased ability to remove larger molecules while at the same time it is able to effectively remove small uremic toxins and efficiently retain albumin and larger proteins. The invention also relates to using said dialyzer in hemodialysis.

The invention relates to the providing of hydrophobic and hydrophilic polymer-based hollow fiber membranes containing a water-insoluble antioxidant; in particular, the invention relates to the providing of hollow fiber membranes for the extracorporeal treatment of blood, wherein the hollow fiber membranes have improved biocompatibility relative to treatment blood, in particular improved complement activation and lower platelet loss vis--vis treatment blood. At the same time, the elution of hydrophilic polymers from the lumen of the hollow fiber membrane is reduced.

The present invention provides an intrinsically anti-microbial hollow fiber membrane for filtration of liquids. The membrane comprises a plurality of porous hollow bilayer membrane fibers wherein the liquid enters from outside of the fiber, passing through the porous membrane into the lumen of the fiber and coming out from the hollow ending of the fiber, wherein this configuration provides a liquid outside-in arrangement and retains the filtrate outside. It means that membrane of the invention has built in characteristics to act against microbes in order to provide the use with a safe liquid free from microbes. The outer side or outer wall of the hollow fibers may be configured to become hydrophobic whereas inner side or inner wall of the hollow fiber membrane may be configured to become hydrophilic to enhance the water permeability to a great extent. The hollow fiber membrane may be configured to give it an intrinsic anti-microbial capability. A device containing above said membrane has also been disclosed.

A hollow fiber membrane including a dense layer at least on an inner surface side of the hollow fiber membrane, in which when the inner surface of the hollow fiber membrane is observed under an atomic force microscope, a plurality of groove-like recesses oriented in a lengthwise direction of the hollow fiber membrane are observed, an aspect ratio defined as a ratio of a length to a width of each of the recesses is greater than or equal to 3 and less than or equal to 30, a yield strength of the hollow fiber membrane in a dry state is greater than or equal to 30 g/filament, and a breaking elongation is less than or equal to 20%/filament.

Polyethers (A), whose main chain essentially consists of repeating units of the formulae (1) and (2) in alternating order, are useful as an additive to a porous polymer membrane, or as the main polymer constituent of a porous polymer membrane, for stabilizing said membrane against detrimental effects of oxidizing agents and/or for improving the stability of a filtration module comprising said membrane against detrimental effects of oxidizing agents. ##STR00001##

A method for joining braids that are used for a braid-reinforced hollow fiber membrane, produced by the method inserting a core material into the hollow parts of ends of two braids to be joined to connect the two braids, covering the joint part with a heat-shrinkable tube, and shrinking the heat-shrinkable tube by heating at 120 to 160 C., thereby joining the braid ends together, and that can exhibit sufficient joint strength when load is applied during spinning, or when a porous hollow fiber membrane is used as a treatment membrane for water purification treatment, sewage and waste water treatment, etc. A braid-reinforced porous hollow fiber membrane is produced by allowing braids whose ends are joined by the above method to pass through the inner nozzle of a double annular spinning nozzle, applying a membrane-forming dope discharged from the outer nozzle of the double annular spinning nozzle to the outer surfaces of the joined braids passing through the inner nozzle of the double annular spinning nozzle for impregnation, then coagulating the braids in a coagulating liquid, and winding the braids on a bobbin.