The effect of ozone gas sterilization on the properties and cell compatibility of electrospun polycaprolactone scaffolds.

The growing area of tissue engineering has the potential to alleviate the shortage of tissues and organs for transplantation, and electrospun biomaterial scaffolds are extremely promising devices for translating engineered tissues into a clinical setting. However, to be utilized in this capacity, these medical devices need to be sterile. Traditional methods of sterilization are not always suitable for biomaterials, especially as many commonly used biomedical polymers are sensitive to chemical-, thermal- or radiation-induced damage.

About the Sterilization of Chitosan Hydrogel Nanoparticles.

In the last years, nanostructured biomaterials have raised a great interest as platforms for delivery of drugs, genes, imaging agents and for tissue engineering applications. In particular, hydrogel nanoparticles (HNP) associate the distinctive features of hydrogels (high water uptake capacity, biocompatibility) with the advantages of being possible to tailor its physicochemical properties at nano-scale to increase solubility, immunocompatibility and cellular uptake. In order to be safe, HNP for biomedical applications, such as injectable or ophthalmic formulations, must be sterile.

Ozone Gas as a Benign Sterilization Treatment for PLGA Nanofiber Scaffolds.

The use of electrospun nanofibers for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications is a growing trend as they provide improved support for cell proliferation and survival due, in part, to their morphology mimicking that of the extracellular matrix. Sterilization is a critical step in the fabrication process of implantable biomaterial scaffolds for clinical use, but many of the existing methods used to date can negatively affect scaffold properties and performance. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) has been widely used as a biodegradable polymer for 3D scaffolds and can be significantly affected by current sterilization techniques.