• Christopher D Pritchard, Timothy M O'Shea, Daniel J Siegwart, Eliezer Calo, Daniel G Anderson, Francis M Reynolds, John A Thomas, Jonathan R Slotkin, Eric J Woodard, and Robert Langer.
• Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. cpritcha@mit.edu
• Biomaterials. 2011 Jan 1;32(2):587-97.

AbstractClinically available injectable hydrogels face technical challenges associated with swelling after injection and toxicity from unreacted constituents that impede their performance as surgical biomaterials. To overcome these challenges, we developed a system where chemical gelation was controlled by a conjugate Michael addition between thiol and acrylate in aqueous media, with 97% monomer conversion and 6 wt.% sol fraction. The hydrogel exhibited syneresis on equilibration, reducing to 59.7% of its initial volume. It had mechanical properties similar to soft human tissue with an elastic modulus of 189.8 kPa. Furthermore, a mesh size of 6.9 nm resulted in sustained release of methylprednisolone sodium succinate with a loading efficiency of 2 mg/mL. Functionalization with 50 μg/mL of an oligolysine peptide resulted in attachment of freshly isolated murine mesenchymal stem cells. The rational design of the physical, chemical and biological properties of the hydrogel makes it a potentially promising candidate for injectable applications.Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

16 keywords...

hide…