@inproceedings {17720,
	title = {Designing novel starch/cellulose acetate structures for biomedical applications},
	journal = {Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine},
	volume = {7},
	year = {2013},
	month = {2013-09-30 00:00:00},
	pages = {6-52},
	publisher = {John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.},
	address = {Porto},
	abstract = {<p style="text-align: justify;">Starch-based blends present an enormous potential to be widely used\&nbsp;in the biomedical area, because they are totally biodegradable, inexpensive,\&nbsp;available in large quantities. However, natural-based polymers\&nbsp;have great limitations in processability particularly due to their usually\&nbsp;high crystallinity which limits their solubility. This can be overcome by\&nbsp;the use of ionic liquids which are recognized as {\textquoteleft}green{\textquoteright} replacements forconventional organic solvents. Earlier reports emphasized the use of\&nbsp;certain ionic liquids to solubilize some natural macromolecules such as\&nbsp;cellulose, starch, chitin, chitosan and silk fibroin. Furthermore, they\&nbsp;present unique physicochemical properties, namely lower vapour pressure,excellent chemical and thermal stabilities, high ionic conductivity\&nbsp;and easy recyclability. Starch based materials have been proceed in a\&nbsp;variety of different morphologies and shapes by a number of different\&nbsp;processes. In this work, starch/cellulose acetate (SCA) was dissolved in\&nbsp;1-butyl-3-imidazolium acetate, followed by regeneration of the polymer\&nbsp;in different non-solvents (water, ethanol and isopropanol) in order to\&nbsp;obtain membranes. Different concentrations of SCA (5 and 10\%) in\&nbsp;ionic liquid and drying techniques (vacuum oven and freeze drying)\&nbsp;were studied. The starch/cellulose acetate structures were evaluated by\&nbsp;their swelling capability, degradation behaviour and morphological features.Moreover, the influence of thickness on physical chemical properties\&nbsp;of the membranes was assessed. The results revealed that\&nbsp;membranes with lower thickness showed high water absorption, which\&nbsp;by its turn accelerated their degradation rate. Furthermore, the membranes\&nbsp;dried by vacuum oven present a more compact structure as compared\&nbsp;those prepared by freeze drying. Some previous works reported\&nbsp;SCA as a suitable material for tissue engineering purposes, supporting\&nbsp;the cell adhesion. Then, in vitro cell culturing assays will be performed\&nbsp;using osteoblast like cells (SaOs-2) and mouse fibroblast-like cell line\&nbsp;(L929).The cell viability and proliferation on membranes will be evaluated\&nbsp;through the MTS test and the DNA quantification. The development\&nbsp;of innovative technology such as novel natural polymers\&nbsp;materials is of grater interest in medical field. All findings suggested\&nbsp;that the obtained structures (membranes) present adequate propertiesfor several biomedical applications for instance drug delivery, skin substitutes,guided bone regeneration or as coatings for medical devices.</p>},
	keywords = {biomaterial, starch cellulose acetate},
	doi = {10.1002/term.2013.7.issue-s1},
	url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/term.2013.7.issue-s1/issuetoc},
	author = {Martins, M. and Silva, S. S. and Duarte, A. R. C. and Reis, R. L.}
}
