γ-Irradiation sterilized bone strengthened and toughened by ribose pre-treatment.

Objective: This study tested the hypothesis that a ribose-based pre-treatment would protect the strength, ductility and toughness of γ-irradiation sterilized cortical bone.

Methods: Experiment 1: The effects of ribose pre-treatment (1.8M in PBS at 60°C for 24h) prior to 33 kGy of irradiation on strength, ductility and toughness (beams in three-point bending) and fracture toughness (J-integral at instability in single edge notched (bending)) were tested against matched non-irradiated and irradiated controls from bovine tibiae.

Bone embrittlement and collagen modifications due to high-dose gamma-irradiation sterilization.

Bone allografts are often used in orthopedic reconstruction of skeletal defects resulting from trauma, bone cancer or revision of joint arthroplasty. γ-Irradiation sterilization is a widely-used biological safety measure; however it is known to embrittle bone. Irradiation has been shown to affect the post-yield properties, which are attributed to the collagen component of bone.

Selective improvement of tumor necrosis factor capture in a cytokine hemoadsorption device using immobilized anti-tumor necrosis factor.

Sepsis is a harmful hyper-inflammatory state characterized by overproduction of cytokines. Removal of these cytokines using an extracorporeal device is a potential therapy for sepsis. We are developing a cytokine adsorption device (CAD) filled with porous polymer beads which efficiently depletes middle-molecular weight cytokines from a circulating solution.