ABSTRACT
In the last decade, new generations of biopolymer-based materials have attracted attention, aiming its application as scaffolds for tissue engineering. These engineered three-dimensional scaffolds are designed to improve or replace damaged, missing, or otherwise compromised tissues or organs. Despite the number of promising methods that can be used to generate 3D cell-instructive matrices, the innovative nature of the present work relies on the application of ionizing radiation technology to form and modify surfaces and matrices with advantage over more conventional technologies (room temperature reaction, absence of harmful initiators or solvents, high penetration through the bulk materials, etc.), and the possibility of preparation and sterilization in one single step. The current chapter summarizes the work done by the authors in the gamma radiation processing of biocompatible and biodegradable chitosan-based matrices for skin regeneration. Particular attention is given to the correlation between the different preparation conditions and the final polymeric matrices' properties. We therefore expect to demonstrate that instructive matrices produced and improved by radiation technology bring to the field of skin regenerative medicine a supplemental advantage over more conservative techniques.
ABSTRACT
PDMS-SiO2 hybrid materials obtained by sol-gel process have been extensively studied over the past years due to its promising biomedical applications namely as bone substitutes, catheters, and drug delivery devices. Regardless of the intended biomedical application, all these materials should go through a sterilization process before interfacing with a living structure. However, it is unclear whether they undergo structural and microstructural changes when subjected to sterilization by gamma irradiation. This paper addresses this issue by showing that a sol-gel processed biomaterial based on the PDMS-CaO-SiO2 hybrid system suffers only small structural changes when submitted to a radiation dose of 25kGy, the dose usually recommended to achieve a Sterility Assurance Level of 10(-6) when the natural contamination level and microorganism types cannot be calculated. The characterization was assessed by FT-IR, (29)Si-{(1)H} CP-MAS, thermal analysis (DTG), and SEM.
