title: Synthesis of an agarose-gelatin conjugate for use as a tissue engineering scaffold.
abstract: We synthesized a conjugate in which gelatin was covalently crosslinked to agarose using 1,1-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) in dimethyl sulfoxide in order to obtain gels with cellular adhesiveness that showed a sol-to-gel transition, but no gel-to-sol transition, around body temperature. The gelatin content of the conjugate increased by 2.7-fold when the concentration of CDI was increased from 1.3 to 32.7 mM. Aqueous solutions of the conjugate gelled upon cooling from 40 degrees C to 20 degrees C, but did not remelt at 37 degrees C. The percentage of adhered cells after 4 h of culture on a gel created from a conjugate containing about 25 wt% gelatin was similar to that for cells grown on tissue culture dishes. The adhered cells proliferated on the conjugate gel during culture for a further 5 d. In addition, the conjugate used in this study did not result in mechanical instability of the resultant gel compared to that of an unmodified agarose gel. These results demonstrate that this agarose-gelatin conjugate is a good candidate material for tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan. sakai@chem-eng.kyushu-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Koei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawakami
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D002415:Cats; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002460:Cell Line; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D048429:Cell Size; D019245:Compressive Strength; D004548:Elasticity; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000737:chemistry*; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry*; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008422:Materials Testing; D012685:Sepharose / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D005780:Gelatin; D012685:Sepharose