Effect of Sterilization Methods on Electrospun Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) Fiber Alignment for Biomedical Applications

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2016-02, Vol.8 (5), p.3241-3249
• Main Authors: Valente, T. A. M, Silva, D. M, Gomes, P. S, Fernandes, M. H, Santos, J. D, Sencadas, V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical Technology; Ethylene Oxide - toxicity; Gamma Rays - adverse effects; Humans; Lactic Acid - chemistry; Lactic Acid - radiation effects; Materials Testing; Membranes, Artificial; Polyesters; Polymers - chemistry; Polymers - radiation effects; Sterilization; Tissue Engineering - instrumentation; Ultraviolet Rays - adverse effects
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b10869

Medically approved sterility methods should be a major concern when developing a polymeric scaffold, mainly when commercialization is envisaged. In the present work, poly­(lactic acid) (PLA) fiber membranes were processed by electrospinning with random and aligned fiber alignment and sterilized under UV, ethylene oxide (EO), and γ-radiation, the most common ones for clinical applications. It was observed that UV light and γ-radiation do not influence fiber morphology or alignment, while electrospun samples treated with EO lead to fiber orientation loss and morphology changing from cylindrical fibers to ribbon-like structures, accompanied to an increase of polymer crystallinity up to 28%. UV light and γ-radiation sterilization methods showed to be less harmful to polymer morphology, without significant changes in polymer thermal and mechanical properties, but a slight increase of polymer wettability was detected, especially for the samples treated with UV radiation. In vitro results indicate that both UV and γ-radiation treatments of PLA membranes allow the adhesion and proliferation of MG 63 osteoblastic cells in a close interaction with the fiber meshes and with a growth pattern highly sensitive to the underlying random or aligned fiber orientation. These results are suggestive of the potential of both γ-radiation sterilized PLA membranes for clinical applications in regenerative medicine, especially those where customized membrane morphology and fiber alignment is an important issue.