In vitro degradation of dermal sheep collagen cross-linked using a water-soluble carbodiimide

• Published in: Biomaterials 1996-04, Vol.17 (7), p.679-684
• Main Authors: Damink, L.H.H.Olde, Dijkstra, P.J., van Luyn, M.J.A., van Wachem, P.B., Nieuwenhuis, P., Feijen, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; carbodiimide; Clostridium - enzymology; Collagen; Collagen - chemistry; Collagen - metabolism; collagenase; Collagenases - metabolism; cross-linking; Cross-Linking Reagents - chemistry; degradation; Ethyldimethylaminopropyl Carbodiimide - chemistry; Ethyldimethylaminopropyl Carbodiimide - metabolism; Ethylene Oxide - chemistry; Medical sciences; Molecular Sequence Data; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Sheep; Skin - metabolism; Solubility; Sterilization; Succinimides - chemistry; Succinimides - metabolism; Technology. Biomaterials. Equipments. Material. Instrumentation; Water - chemistry
• ISSN: 0142-9612; 1878-5905
• DOI: 10.1016/0142-9612(96)86737-8

Bacterial collagenase was used to study the susceptibility of dermal sheep collagen (DSC) crosslinked with a mixture of the water-soluble carbodiimide 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl)-carbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysuccinimide (E/N-DSC) towards enzymatic degradation. Contrary to non-cross-linked DSC (N-DSC), which had a rate of weight-loss of 18.1% per hour upon degradation, no weight loss was observed for E/N-DSC during a 24 h degradation period. The tensile strength of the E/N-DSC samples decreased during this time period, resulting in partially degraded samples having 80% of the initial tensile strength remaining. The susceptibility of E/N-DSC samples towards enzymatic degradation could be controlled by varying the degree of cross-linking of the samples. Ethylene oxide sterilization of E/N-DSC samples made the material more resistant against degradation compared with non-sterilized E/N-DSC samples. This may be explained by a decrease of the adsorption of bacterial collagenase onto the collagen owing to reaction of ethylene oxide with remaining free amine groups in the collagen matrix.