Harrell CR, Djonov V, Fellabaum C, Volarevic V. Risks of Using Sterilization by Gamma Radiation: The Other Side of the Coin.
Int J Med Sci 2018;
15:274-279. [PMID:
29483819 PMCID:
PMC5820857 DOI:
10.7150/ijms.22644]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2017] [Accepted: 12/21/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The standard sterilization method for most medical devices over the past 40 years involves gamma irradiation. During sterilization, gamma rays efficiently eliminate microorganisms from the medical devices and tissue allografts, but also significantly change molecular structure of irradiated products, particularly fragile biologics such as cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. Accordingly, gamma radiation significantly alters biomechanical properties of bone, tendon, tracheal, skin, amnion tissue grafts and micronized amniotic membrane injectable products. Similarly, when polymer medical devices are sterilized by gamma radiation, their physico-chemical characteristics undergo modification significantly affecting their clinical use. Several animal studies demonstrated that consummation of irradiated food provoked genome instability raising serious concerns regarding oncogenic potential of irradiated consumables. These findings strongly suggest that new, long-term, prospective clinical studies should be conducted in near future to investigate whether irradiated food is safe for human consumption. In this review, we summarized current knowledge regarding molecular mechanisms responsible for deleterious effects of gamma radiation with focusing on its significance for food safety and biomechanical characteristics of medical devices, and tissue allografts, especially injectable biologics.
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