[Porous polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel composite prepared and studied initially for biocompatibility].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the feasibility of porous polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA-H) composite, for tissue engineering scaffold.


METHODS
The approach of emulsifier-foaming, freeze-drying and surfactant-cleaning method was developed to gain three kinds of porous scaffolds: porous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), porous polyvinyl alcohol/nano-hydroxyapatite (PVA/n-HA) and porous polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan (PVA/Cs). We checked the physical features of the above three kinds of materials and further investigated their biocompatibility by SEM image analysis, mechanics test, MTT and muscle implanting.


RESULTS
Three kinds of materials had the similar character of high porosity (80%), but the PVA/n-HA had the smallest mean pore size (154.5 microm) and the PVA had the biggest tensile strength (0.60 Mpa). MTT assay demonstrated three kinds of materials to have no toxicity, furthermore, PVA had better absorbance, compared with cell control group (P < 0.05). After muscle implantation, there were many muscular tissues growing into pores of PVA/Cs at the 4th week, although PVA/Cs had stronger inflammatory reaction. Other two kinds of materials had very small inflammatory reaction and there were many fibrous tissues growing into pores at the 1st, 4th, 12th week.


CONCLUSIONS
The features of materials are changed after adding n-HA or Cs, moreover, porous PVA/Cs seems to have the activity of inducing muscle growth. Porous PVA and its composites may be applied to tissue engineering as a long-term or permanent scaffold due to their good biocompatibility, elasticity and hydrophilicity.
Wu
Jia-qi
JQ
Department of Orthopaedics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Liu
Yang
Y
Yang
Tian-fu
TF
Mu
Yuan-hua
YH
Guo
Tao
T
Li
Yu-bao
YB
D000818:Animals; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D020100:Hydrogels; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D016062:Porosity; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
D020100:Hydrogels; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol