Preparation and characterization of a microencapsulated polyethylene glycol cross-linked polyhemoglobin.

Many complications are associated to the therapeutic use of blood, among which are not only transfusion adverse events but also other issues such as lack of donors and high costs for collecting, testing, preserving, and distributing blood packages. Therefore, a clinically viable "blood substitute" is considered the holy grail of traumatology and may greatly benefit medicine. One of the most successful approaches to date is conjugating hemoglobin with polyethylene glycol (PEG).

Inhibition of calcification of bovine pericardium after treatment with biopolymers, E-beam irradiation and in vitro endothelization.

This work has investigated the in vitro calcification of bovine pericardium (BP) treated with chitosan (C), silk fibroin (SF) and electron beam irradiation after its endothelization in vitro. For this purpose, freeze-dried BP membranes treated with mixtures of C and SF (1:3, 1:1 and 3:1) and then irradiated by electron beam irradiation were seeded with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro. After 3 weeks of cultivation these membranes were submitted to in vitro calcification tests using simulated body fluid as the calcifying agent.