Analysis of tensile strength of poly(lactic-coglycolic acid) (PLGA) membranes used for guided tissue regeneration

Resumo

The challenge of restoring patient’s function that presented
some loss of an organ or tissue encourages the Tissue Engineering
and Biotechnology to develop materials that promote bone regeneration.
Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) copolymer is among of the most
biomaterials used. Objective: To evaluate the tensile strength of
PLGA membranes at different conditions of humidity and temperature.
Material and methods: PLGA membranes were hourglass-shape cut
and prepared at three different conditions of temperature and humidity
(n = 10): (I) dry membrane at environment temperature of about
20ºC (control group), (II) moist membrane plasticized at 55ºC, (III)
moist membrane plasticized at 55ºC, which subsequently underwent
cooling. Subsequently, the membranes were subjected to tensile tests
in a universal testing machine (DL-2000, EMIC) at 1.0 mm/min. Data
was submitted to ANOVA and Tukey’s test (p < 0.05). Results: Group I
showed the highest tensile strength mean (16.7 ± 1.9a
MPa, p = 0.0022).
There was no statistically significant difference between the means of
groups II (14.6 ± 1.4 MPab
) and III (13.9 ± 1.7 MPab
). Conclusion:
The dried PLGA membranes showed higher tensile strength than the
membranes that were only either plasticized or cooled.