**Acknowledgements**

only marginal differences were found. The plasma coating process, using parylene, resulted in an increase in tensile strength, most likely due to the hydrophobic character of the coating. Saxena et al. published 3 papers on plasma grafting of PP sutures [121-123]. In all the articles an RF O2 plasma was used to activate the monofilament, followed by the immersion in an acrylic acid solution. The introduced carboxylic acid groups were then used to successfully immobilize chitosan. While the first 2 articles elaborates on the preservation of the mechanical properties and the surface chemical characterization, the second article focusses more on the antimicrobial, in-vitro and in-vivo properties. The viability of both E. Coli and S. Aureus were reduced with more than 90%. The in-vitro studies revealed excellent adhesion and prolifera‐ tion of MC3T3 cells and the in-vivo use in a rodent resulted in a better quality of tissue integration and a minimal inflammatory response. The grafting of acrylic acid onto a mono‐ filament for improved antimicrobial functionality was inspired by Gupta at al. who grafted acrylic acid onto PET monofilaments, obtaining similar antimicrobial results [124, 125].

**Figure 7.** Left: Zone of inhibition against E. Coli (a) control PP suture and (b) drug-loaded PP suture (degree of graft‐ ing, 5%). Middle: Zone of inhibition against K. Pneumonia (a) control PP suture and (b) drug-loaded PP suture (degree of grafting, 5%). Right: Zone of inhibition against S. Aureus (a) control PP suture and (b) drug-loaded PP suture (de‐

Albeit being a rather low-tech application, plasma technology is still able to improve the performance of medical sutures. If the results found for tissue engineering applications would be applied for monofilament applications, it is beyond doubt that the biomedical properties

In this chapter a broad range of applications has been reviewed where non-thermal plasma technology could play a beneficial role in the biomedical performance of technical textiles. Albeit being more limited in the number of functional groups that can be incorporated and the limited stability over time, plasma activation still leads to improvements in cell viability, adhesion, proliferation and differentiation as well as better adsorption and chemical bonding of bioactive and bactericidal macromolecules. Plasma grafting and polymerization is equally able to do all of the above, while having access to a wider variety of functional groups and

gree of grafting, 5%) [132].

136 Advances in Bioengineering

**4. Conclusion**

could be further enhanced.

This chapter has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 279022.
