title: Wet-laid soy fiber reinforced hydrogel scaffold: Fabrication, mechano-morphological and cell studies.
abstract: Among materials used in biomedical applications, hydrogels have received consistent linear growth in interest over the past decade due to their large water volume and saliency to the natural extracellular matrix. These materials are often limited due to their sub-optimal mechanical properties which are typically improved via chemical or physical crosslinking. Chemical crosslinking forms strong inter-polymer bonds but typically uses reagents that are cytotoxic while physical crosslinking is more temperamental to environmental changes but can be formed without these toxic reagents. In this study, we added a fiber-reinforcement phase to a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel formed through successive freezing-thawing cycles by incorporating a non-woven microfiber mat formed by the wet-lay process. By reinforcing the hydrogel with a wet-laid fibrous mat, the ultimate tensile strength and modulus increased from 0.11 ± 0.01 MPa and 0.17 ± 0.02 kPa to 0.24 ± 0.02 MPa and 5.76 ± 1.12 kPa, respectively. An increase in toughness and elongation was also found increasing from 2.52 ± 0.37 MPa to 25.6 ± 3.84 and 51.89 ± 5.16% to 111.16 ± 9.68%, respectively. The soy fibers were also found to induce minimal cytotoxicity with endothelial cell viability showing 96.51% ± 1.91 living cells after a 48 h incubation. This approach to hydrogel-reinforcement presents a rapid, tunable method by which hydrogels can attain increased mechanical properties without sacrificing their inherent biologically favorable properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1150 10th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35233, United States. Electronic address: ATWood@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1150 10th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35233, United States. Electronic address: DEveret9@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Everett
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1150 10th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35233, United States; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1075 13th Street South Suite 101 Birmingham, AL 35294, United States; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1700 6th Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35233, United States. Electronic address: Ironman@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Karim I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Budhwani
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1150 10th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35233, United States. Electronic address: Brenna94@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Brenna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1150 10th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35233, United States; Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB), University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd. CH 386 Birmingham, AL 35294, United States. Electronic address: VThomas@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Vinoy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D051379:Mice; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000737:chemistry; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013718:Tensile Strength
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol
keywords: Hydrogels; Mechanical properties; Natural fiber; Poly(vinyl alcohol); Regenerative medicine; Tissue engineering; Wet-laid process