Biomaterials respond to sterilization methods differently. Steam sterilization might decrease the performance of thermoplastic polyether-urethane (TPU); however, the effect of different gamma-radiation doses on this polymer is contradictory in present literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between irradiative doses in comparison with steam sterilization on a porous TPU scaffold produced by a new processing method. No significant differences in the surface chemical structure were found with attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis when comparing with the sterilization methods. The molecular weight (M(w)) had a net increase from 11.5 +/- 0.039 to 13.2 +/- 0.072 kDa by gamma-sterilization from 10 to 60 kGy. The samples that were irradiated (>60 kGy) had also an increase in polydispersity index (PDI; 1.45 +/- 0.007) in comparison with the nonsterile ones (1.31 +/- 0.017), which indicate branching. Liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy (LC/MS) analysis showed that there was a correlation between the concentration of the breakdown product, methyl dianiline, and cytotoxicity. The concentration of this compound was found to be four times higher in steam-sterilized sample (1.3 +/- 0.01 ppb) compared with that of the polymer sample gamma-sterilized at 10 kGy (0.3 +/- 0.01 ppb). The cytotoxicity of TPU was found to decrease with higher radiation doses, and was significantly higher for the steam-sterilized samples. It is recommended that TPU produced with the described foaming method should be sterilized by gamma-irradiation at 25 kGy or higher doses.
(c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.