Polypropylene (PP) mesh has been widely used for surgical treatment of urinary incontinence. Despite of the undisputed advantages of the PP meshes currently available, there have been number of reports about complications after these surgeries such as inflammation and infection around implanted area. Anti-oxidant agents including caffeic acid, quercetin, morin, and curcumin were incorporated to the surface of PP films to depress an initial excessive inflammatory reaction through quenching reactive oxygen species(ROS) released from macrophages. The depression of the inflammation could be evaluated through measuring various cytokines produced by LPS-stimulated macrophages, and quercetin-coated PP film which had the highest ROS scavenging activity among other anti-oxidants showed decreases in IL-1β and IL-6 by 68% and 77% compared to control, respectively. Furthermore, the viabilities of fibroblasts cultured on the anti-oxidant-coated PP films were increased and abundant spreading of cell were observed in SEM micrographs. From these results, it could be suggested that the incorporation of anti-oxidant would be one of the promising methods to enhance anti-inflammation and cell-affinity of surgical meshes.
