Toward modulating the architecture of hydrogel scaffolds: curtains versus channels.
The design, development and evaluation of biomaterials that can sustain life or restore a certain body function, is a very important and rapidly expanding field in materials science. A key issue in the development of biomaterials is the design of a material that mimics the natural environment of cells. In the present work, we have therefore developed hydrogel materials that contain both a protein (gelatin) and a glycosaminoglycan (chondroitin sulphate) component. To enable a permanent crosslinking, gelatin and chondroitin sulphate were first chemically modified using methacrylic anhydride. Hydrogels containing modified gelatin (gel-MOD) and/or chondroitin sulphate (CS-MOD) were cryogenically treated as optimised earlier for gel-MOD based hydrogels (Van Vlierberghe et al., Biomacromolecules 8:331-337, 2007). The cryogenic treatment leads to tubular pores for gel-MOD based systems. For CS-MOD based hydrogels and hydrogels containing both gel-MOD and CS-MOD, a curtain-like architecture (i.e. parallel plates) was observed, depending on the applied CS-MOD concentration. In our opinion, this is the first paper in which such well-defined scaffold architectures have been obtained without using rapid prototyping techniques.
Van Vlierberghe
S
S
Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Research Group, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S4-bis, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Dubruel
P
P
Lippens
E
E
Masschaele
B
B
Van Hoorebeke
L
L
Cornelissen
M
M
Unger
R
R
Kirkpatrick
C J
CJ
Schacht
E
E
D000812:Anhydrides / Q000737:chemistry; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002809:Chondroitin Sulfates / Q000737:chemistry; D005615:Freezing; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D008422:Materials Testing; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods
D000812:Anhydrides; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D006025:Glycosaminoglycans; D020100:Hydrogels; D005780:Gelatin; D002809:Chondroitin Sulfates