Thermal welding of biological tissues derived from porcine aorta for manufacturing bioprosthetic cardiac valves.

Sutures in cardiac valve bioprostheses have several disadvantages as they have to be manually processed and the suturing region is always a mechanically weak spot. Thermal welding of biological tissues has been evaluated as a means of replacing sutures by the direct application of heat to tissues. The mechanical strength of the welds increased up to 50°C and with lower degrees of humidity and longer times of welding. Chemical fixation was essential for the stability of the weld during re-hydration. The average mechanical strength of the welds (0.87 MPa) was lower than the strength of sutures (1.36 MPa) but some results showed strengths that were similar to sutures. Raman and electron micrographs showed that weld formation is primarily associated with chemical bonds between collagen fibers rather than chain flow and interpenetration.

Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations of As(III) complexation with a cysteine-rich biomaterial.

Arsenite adsorption onto a protein-rich biomass and, more specifically, the chemical groups involved in the uptake were investigated using Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations. The study was based on spectroscopic analyses of raw and arsenic-loaded biomass as well as standard samples of amino acids and arsenic salts. The predominant secondary structure of the protein was identified as the beta-sheet type, with some contribution from alpha-helix structures. The participation of sulphydryl groups from cystine/cysteine molecules during the adsorption of arsenite was demonstrated. Only the gauche-gauche-gauche (g-g-g) conformation type of the disulfide bonds was involved in arsenic complexation. The formation of a pyramidal trigonal As(HCys)(3) complex was modeled according to the density functional theory (DFT). The agreement of the DFT harmonic frequencies with the RAMAN spectra of the As(HCys)(3) complex demonstrated the relevant features of the cysteine-rich biomaterial regarding arsenic uptake as well as of the mechanism involved in the As(III)/biomass interaction at a molecular level. The results also illustrate that Raman spectroscopy can be successfully applied to investigate the mechanism of metal adsorption onto amorphous biomaterials.