Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a water‐soluble synthetic polymer with excellent film‐forming, emulsifying, and adhesive properties. The aim of this study is to design a simple process for PVA cross‐linking with sodium trimetaphosphate to form membrane devices suitable for biomedical applications. This procedure requires no organic solvent, nor melting process to obtain films with high mechanical strength. Fabrication of a small diameter tube from a PVA film is easy with a single wrapping step around a Teflon rod. Dynamic mechanical analysis demonstrated that, upon removal of the applied stress, the PVA film with a Young's modulus of 2 × 105 kPa returns to its original size and shape. The wall thickness of PVA tubes is 344 ± 13 µm (n = 12), which is close to the wall thickness of a human artery (350–710 µm). Suture retention of a PVA tube is excellent (140 ± 11 g), close to that of human vessels. The burst pressure of PVA tubes is found to be 507 ± 25 mm Hg, more than three times higher than the human healthy systolic arterial pressure. Under arterial pressure, there was no leakage even after needle puncture, contrary to clinical vascular expanded polytetrafluoroethylene prostheses. Finally, PVA tubes of 2 mm in diameter are used to replace a segment of an infrarenal aorta in rats. For at least one week, no mechanical nor thrombotic complications are noticed even in the absence of anticoagulant or antiplatelet treatment. Graft patency is also evidenced with non‐invasive imaging techniques. As a conclusion, this novel cross‐linking method confers to poly(vinyl alcohol) particular mechanical properties such as compliance, elasticity and resistance to mechanical stress, compatible with the circulatory blood flow.

When cross-linked by heating or by gamma-irradiation and entrapped in cellulose, whey proteins can generate insoluble biofilms with good mechanical properties and high resistance to attack by proteolytic enzymes. Interchain cross-linking of proteins generated an increase in the puncture strength, and a decrease in water vapor permeability. Gelatin was added in film formulation as a stabilizer to improve the puncture strength and film appearance. The structure of the biofilms was also analyzed. SDS-PAGE revealed that heating and gamma-irradiation produce an increase of the molecular weight of the cross-linked protein. Size exclusion chromatography showed a molecular mass of 40 kDa for un-cross-linked whey proteins, whereas for the soluble fractions of the cross-linked proteins, molecular distributions were between 600 and 3800 kDa for the heated proteins and between 1000 and 2000 kDa for gamma-irradiated proteins. No major alteration of the structural conformation of the proteins was observed by FTIR for biofilms obtained after heat treatment, whereas gamma-irradiation induced some modifications in the protein structure. X-ray diffraction analysis suggests that cross-linking by gamma-irradiation seems to modify the conformation of proteins, which became more ordered and more stable.

Color analysis on apple and potato slices coated with calcium caseinate or whey protein solutions showed that the 2 coatings efficiently delayed browning by acting as oxygen barriers. The antioxidant properties of the films were realized using a model allowing the release of oxidative species by electrolysis of saline buffer. Whey proteins were a better antioxidant capacity than calcium caseinate. Furthermore, addition of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to the formulations significantly improved their antioxidative power. Best scavenging of oxygen free radicals and reactive oxygen species was found for films based on whey proteins and CMC which inhibited by 75% the formation of colored compounds produced by the reaction of the oxidative species with N,N‐diethyl‐p‐phenylenediamine.

Sterilized biofilms based on soy protein isolate (SPI, S system) and a 1:1 mixture of SPI and whey protein isolate (WPI, SW system) were achieved through the formation of cross-links by means of gamma-irradiation combined with thermal treatments. The effect of the incorporation of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and poly(vinyl alcohol) was also examined. gamma-Irradiation combined with thermal treatment improved significantly the mechanical properties, namely, puncture strength and puncture deformation, for all types of films. Irradiated formulations that contain CMC behave more similarly as elastomers. CMC showed also significant improvements of the barrier properties, namely, water vapor permeability, for irradiated films of the S system and for non-irradiated films of the SW system.