The effect of ?-irradiation on collagen molecules, isolated ?-chains, and crosslinked native fibers

✍ Scribed by Cheung, David T. ;Perelman, Natalya ;Tong, Deborah ;Nimni, Marcel E.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 494 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9304
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.820240505

✦ Synopsis

This study shows how collagen molecules are readily damaged by y-radiation at dosages commonly used for sterilizing biomedical products. At 1 Mrad, while the reported effectiveness of the radiation at such a low dosage to completely sterilize a material is questionable, less damage was caused to the collagen peptide backbone. Above such dosage, however, significant damage was clearly demonstrated with collagen alone and collagen in a chemically crosslinked tissue matrix. The enzyme digestion study showed that the material exposed to a very high dosage of radiation resisted degradation by pronase. However, molecular weight analysis showed a significant number of peptide bonds being cleaved by the radiation which could cause considerable changes in the long-term characteristics of the material. Therefore, tissues exposed to high dosages of y-radiation should be tested for long term functional changes. We want to caution against the usage of the enzyme degradation assay as a universal test for all bioprosthetic derived from biological tissues.