Low-energy electron beam sterilization of solid alginate and chitosan, and their polyelectrolyte complexes

Maylis Farno; Camille Lamarche; Christophe Tenailleau; Sandrine Cavalié; Benjamin Duployer; Daniel Cussac; Angelo Parini; Brigitte Sallerin; Sophie Girod Fullana

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.117578

Low-energy electron beam sterilization of solid alginate and chitosan, and their polyelectrolyte complexes

Carbohydr Polym. 2021 Jun 1:261:117578. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.117578. Epub 2021 Feb 22.

Authors

Maylis Farno¹, Camille Lamarche², Christophe Tenailleau³, Sandrine Cavalié⁴, Benjamin Duployer³, Daniel Cussac⁵, Angelo Parini⁵, Brigitte Sallerin⁵, Sophie Girod Fullana⁶

Affiliations

¹ Université Paul Sabatier, CIRIMAT Institut Carnot Chimie Balard CIRIMAT, Faculté de Pharmacie, Toulouse, France; Université Paul Sabatier, I2MC, Toulouse, France.
² ITHPP Alcen, Thégra, France.
³ Université Paul Sabatier, CIRIMAT Institut Carnot Chimie Balard CIRIMAT, UPS, Toulouse, France.
⁴ Université Paul Sabatier, CIRIMAT Institut Carnot Chimie Balard CIRIMAT, Faculté de Pharmacie, Toulouse, France.
⁵ Université Paul Sabatier, I2MC, Toulouse, France.
⁶ Université Paul Sabatier, CIRIMAT Institut Carnot Chimie Balard CIRIMAT, Faculté de Pharmacie, Toulouse, France. Electronic address: sophie.fullana-girod@univ-tlse3.fr.

PMID: 33766327
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.117578

Abstract

Polysaccharidic scaffolds hold great hope in regenerative medicine, however their sterilization still remains challenging since conventional methods are deleterious. Recently, electron beams (EB) have raised interest as emerging sterilization techniques. In this context, the aim of this work was to study the impact of EB irradiations on polysaccharidic macroporous scaffolds. The effects of continuous and pulsed low energy EB were examined on polysaccharidic or on polyelectrolyte complexes (PEC) scaffolds by SEC-MALLS, FTIR and EPR. Then the scaffolds' physicochemical properties: swelling, architecture and compressive modulus were investigated. Finally, sterility and in vitro biocompatibility of irradiated scaffolds were evaluated to validate the effectiveness of our approach. Continuous beam irradiations appear less deleterious on alginate and chitosan chains, but the use of a pulsed beam limits the time of irradiation and better preserve the architecture of PEC scaffolds. This work paves the way for low energy EB tailor-made sterilization of sensitive porous scaffolds.

Keywords: Alginate; Chitosan; Low-energy electron beams; Polyelectrolyte complexes; Polysaccharides; Scaffolds; Sterilization.