ABSTRACT
Introduction: The challenge of restoring patient's function that presented some loss of an organ or tissue encourages the Tissue Engineering and Biotechnology to develop materials that promote bone regeneration. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) copolymer is among of the most biomaterials used. Objective: To evaluate the tensile strength of PLGA membranes at different conditions of humidity and temperature. Material and methods: PLGA membranes were hourglass-shape cut and prepared at three different conditions of temperature and humidity (n = 10): (I) dry membrane at environment temperature of about 20ºC (control group), (II) moist membrane plasticized at 55ºC, (III) moist membrane plasticized at 55ºC, which subsequently underwent cooling. Subsequently, the membranes were subjected to tensile tests in a universal testing machine (DL-2000, EMIC) at 1.0 mm/min. Data was submitted to ANOVA and Tukey's test (p < 0.05). Results: Group I showed the highest tensile strength mean (16.7 ± 1.9a MPa, p = 0.0022). There was no statistically significant difference between the means of groups II (14.6 ± 1.4 MPab) and III (13.9 ± 1.7 MPab). Conclusion: The dried PLGA membranes showed higher tensile strength than the membranes that were only either plasticized or cooled.