Effective terminal sterilization using supercritical carbon dioxide
Gentle alternatives to existing sterilization methods are called for by rapid advances in biomedical technologies. Supercritical fluid technologies have found applications in a wide range of areas and have been explored for use in the inactivation of medical contaminants. In particular, supercritica...
Saved in:
Published in | Journal of biotechnology Vol. 123; no. 4; pp. 504 - 515 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Lausanne
Elsevier B.V
10.06.2006
Amsterdam Elsevier New York, NY |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Gentle alternatives to existing sterilization methods are called for by rapid advances in biomedical technologies. Supercritical fluid technologies have found applications in a wide range of areas and have been explored for use in the inactivation of medical contaminants. In particular, supercritical CO
2 is appealing for sterilization due to the ease at which the supercritical state is attained, the non-reactive nature, and the ability to readily penetrate substrates. However, rapid inactivation of bacterial endospores has proven a barrier to the use of this technology for effective terminal sterilization. We report the development of a supercritical CO
2 based sterilization process capable of achieving rapid inactivation of bacterial endospores while in terminal packaging. Moreover, this process is gentle; as the morphology, ultrastructure, and protein profiles of inactivated microbes are maintained. These properties of the sterilization process suit it for possible use on a wide range of biomedical products including: materials derived from animal tissues, protein based therapies, and other sensitive medical products requiring gentle terminal sterilization. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0168-1656 1873-4863 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2005.12.033 |