title: Sterilization techniques for biodegradable scaffolds in tissue engineering applications.
abstract: Biodegradable scaffolds have been extensively studied due to their wide applications in biomaterials and tissue engineering. However, infections associated with in vivo use of these scaffolds by different microbiological contaminants remain to be a significant challenge. This review focuses on different sterilization techniques including heat, chemical, irradiation, and other novel sterilization techniques for various biodegradable scaffolds. Comparisons of these techniques, including their sterilization mechanisms, post-sterilization effects, and sterilization efficiencies, are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ronholm
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Benu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sethi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Xudong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
keywords: Biodegradable scaffolds; biomaterials; sterilization; tissue engineering