Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin is a biocompatible, versatile, easily sterilized, readily recyclable, "customized" plastic that's used in blood bags, urine bags and surgical gloves. As well, PVC is increasingly viewed by the biomedical engineering community as a potential building block of artificial arteries, artificial veins and the like for medical transplantation. Whether using PVC resin to make surgical gloves or artificial arteries, make sure that your resin is not cytotoxic -- or toxic to the cells with which it will be coming into contact.
- Petri dishes
- Cell culture
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Instructions
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1
Grow the cells with which PVC resins will be coming into contact in a petri dish. Incubate the cells until they reach confluence (greater than 70 percent coverage of the dish).
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2
Add PVC resins to the media in which the cells are growing.
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3
Examine the cells, microscopically, in 24 hours. Look for signs of morphological changes, reductions in cell density or lysis (cell breakage, indicating death) that would point to cytotoxicity.