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Published on: August 24, 2015
γ-Irradiation sterilized bone strengthened and toughened by ribose pre-treatment
Thomas L Willett1, Brianne Burton2, Mitchell Woodside3
1Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory, Mount Sinai Hospital-Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada; Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Objective:
This study tested the hypothesis that a ribose-based pre-treatment would protect the strength, ductility and toughness of γ-irradiation sterilized cortical bone.
Methods:
Experiment 1: The effects of ribose pre-treatment (1.8M in PBS at 60°C for 24h) prior to 33 kGy of irradiation on strength, ductility and toughness (beams in three-point bending) and fracture toughness (J-integral at instability in single edge notched (bending)) were tested against matched non-irradiated and irradiated controls from bovine tibiae. Experiment 2: Three-point bending tests were conducted using beams from human femora (males, 59-67 years). Bone collagen thermal stability and network connectivity were examined using hydrothermal isometric tension testing.
Results:
Ribose pre-treatment protected the strength, ductility and toughness of irradiation sterilized bovine and human specimens to differing degrees. Their ultimate strength was not detectably different from non-irradiated control levels; toughness in bovine and human specimens was protected by 57 and 76%, respectively. Untreated human bone was less affected by irradiation and ribose pre-treatment was more effective in human bone than bovine bone.
Conclusions:
This paper presents the first proof-of-principle that irradiation-sterilized bone with improved mechanical properties can be produced through the application of a ribose pre-irradiation treatment, which provides a more stable and connected collagen network than found in conventionally irradiated controls.
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