Multifactorial analysis of gelling conditions on the mechanical properties of skin-like gelatin membranes intended for in-vitro experimentation and artificial skin models.

LILIAN CELESTE ALARCON SEGOVIA; JORGE IVAN DAZA AGUDELO; IGNACIO RINTOUL

Polymers

MDPI

Año: 2021 vol. 13

2073-4360

The development of new cosmetic products, skin contact medical devices, skin medicaments, wound care devices, tattooing and piercing has experienced an impressive grow during last years. In parallel, new restrictions to in-vivo experimentation in animals and humans have been widely implemented by regulatory authorities. New knowledge about alternative materials for in-vitro skin related experimentation is required to overcome these severe limitations. This paper presents a set of three of 4-D surface response equations describing the mechanical properties of skin like gelatin membranes intended for use as alternative biomaterial for in-vitro skin related experimentation. The membranes were obtained by a sol-gel method. The novelty of this contribution is the establishment of the cross-dependency effects of key synthesis conditionson the final mechanical properties of gelatin membranes. The results of this work are useful to produce gelatin membranes with tailored mechanical properties mimicking different types of human skins. In particular, membranes with Young?s modulus of 1 MPa and maximum tensile strength of 0.85 MPa were obtained.