Quasi-isothermal modulated DSC as a valuable characterisation method for soft tissue biomaterial crosslinking reactions

Glutaraldehyde (Glut) is an extensively used sterilant and fixative for the crosslinking of natural soft tissue biomaterials like bovine pericardium (BP) to provide stability and is required for its application in vivo. There is plenty of debate around the reaction mechanism of Glut with natural biomaterials. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a commonly used technique that is typically used to measure the thermal profile of polymers. However, a variation known as quasi-isothermal modulated differential scanning calorimetry (QiMDSC) has been utilised for the analysis of polymorphic transformations in both the pharmaceutical and food industries. This communication will address QiMDSC as a method for analysing soft tissue biomaterials and their crosslinking mechanisms and how it can be applied to other biomaterial applications.