Hello Bhuvaneswari,

I use gamma radiation or autoclave to sterilize my bioglass. They both work well and I have used them in in-vivo studies.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I think autoclaving is best for in vitro and in vivo studies

Dear Bhuvaneswari, I dont have any experience over bioglass and hydrogels sort of things or even tissue engineering, which no doubt gives me negligible right to answer this, but having basic scientific knowledge and some experience of invitro work, I would never recommend to use autoclaving in such case, as sterilization aspect is something else, but the removal of endotoxins is what matters a lot for invitro jobs. And, autoclaving (moist heat treatment) is not effective at all to remove the pyrogens, which may affect badly your experiments lately. Hopefully, the gamma irradiation, as suggested by Adel or prolong UV exposure (5-6 hours) may have some profound effect, but do avoid autoclaving. Since the bioglass materials are themselves antibacterial in nature as per their composition, so I think radiation exposures would suffice to guarantee their sterility.

Also, what do you think about this fact, that during the production of bioglass, sintering temperatures which cross usually 500 C or even more, may confer some inherent or intrinsic tolerance to high heat, which hopefully allows the use of dry heat (minimum 180 C overnight, as one of the recommended protocol for pyrogen removal by Qiagen) to sterilize them from endotoxins load as well. Though, I am just presuming it based on simple scientific info. It looks that material itself is heat resistant.

Regards....

Thank you Adel, Mamatha, and Jawwad for your answers! Since bioglass might be sensitive to water, don't you think autoclaving can affect the material? Yes, dry heat treatment definitely seems to be a viable option.

Jawwad: Have you done any SEM before and after sterilization to see if it is affecting the microstructure? I have determined the mechanical properties prior to sterilization and wonder if sterilizing might affect the mechanical properties of bioglass due to change in microstructure. Do you have any articles published related to in vitro or in vivo studies with bioglass?

You can use gamma irradiation for sterilization. Moreover, the gamma rays can modify the structure of the bioactive glass, so you can obtain new properties which may be of importance for your applications. Check the attached papers.