Abstract
Tissue engineering is an emerging field in biomedicine, holding enormous promise for regenerative medicine. Scaffolds, within which cells proliferate, are a controlling factor in tissue engineering applications. Upon fabrication, tissue scaffolds must undergo appropriate sterilization to eliminate contaminants. Current sterilization methods are either costly, time consuming, or ineffective. In this study, a quaternary salt, benzalkonium chloride (BAC), was used as a chemical agent for sterilization of nonwoven polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers and polylactic acid nanofibers. Treating the PET scaffolds with 0.1% (w/v) BAC for only 2 minutes was effective to eliminate bacterial contaminants in the fibrous matrices. In addition, astrocyte cells were successfully cultured in the PET scaffolds following BAC sterilization, demonstrating the suitability of BAC as a sterilization agent. This chemical sterilization method is also mild and nonabrasive to nanostructured materials such as electrospun polylactic acid nanofibers.
Highlights
In tissue engineering, scaffolding materials play a pivotal role and dictate the success of the system
The effectiveness of benzalkonium chloride (BAC) as a sterilization agent for treating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) scaffolds was demonstrated in the experiments shown in Fig. (1A)
These results confirmed that only one minute treatment with 1 g/L BAC solution was effective in achieving the sterility of the PET scaffolds
Summary
In tissue engineering, scaffolding materials play a pivotal role and dictate the success of the system. Several sterilization media are available for tissue engineering applications: dry heat, steam, gases, irradiation, and chemicals. Gamma irradiation, which is used in sterilizing heat-sensitive materials in hospitals and the food industry, is relatively expensive and not widely available in most research laboratories. Another sterilization method is using potent chemicals, either gaseous (such as ozone and ethylene oxide) or liquid (such as ethanol, sodium hypochloride (bleach), formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid, and quaternary ammonium) [12, 13]. Not all chemicals are effective or suitable for sterilizing tissue scaffolds
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