Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH PART A
Volume 102, Issue 10, Pages 3477-3487Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.35015
Keywords
hydrogels; swelling and degradation; factorial study; poly(ethylene glycol)-based materials; fabrication parameters
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01-AR048756]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Mathematical Sciences [0907491] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In this study, a full factorial approach was used to investigate the effects of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) molecular weight (MW; 10,000 vs. 35,000 nominal MW), crosslinker-to-macromer carbon-carbon double bond ratio (DBR; 40 vs. 60), crosslinker type (PEG-diacrylate (PEGDA) vs. N, N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MB)), crosslinking extent of incorporated gelatin microparticles (low vs. high), and incubation medium composition (with or without collagenase) on the swelling and degradation characteristics of oligo[(poly(ethylene glycol) fumarate)] (OPF) hydrogel composites as indicated by the swelling ratio and the percentage of mass remaining, respectively. Each factor consisted of two levels, which were selected based on previous in vitro and in vivo studies utilizing these hydrogels for various tissue engineering applications. Fractional factorial analyses of the main effects indicated that the mean swelling ratio and the mean percentage of mass remaining of OPF composite hydrogels were significantly affected by every factor. In particular, increasing the PEG chain MW of OPF macromers significantly increased the mean swelling ratio and decreased the mean percentage of mass remaining by 5.7 +/- 0.3 and 17.2 +/- 0.6%, respectively. However, changing the crosslinker from MB to PEGDA reduced the mean swelling ratio and increased the mean percentage of mass remaining of OPF composite hydrogels by 4.9 +/- 0.2 and 9.4 +/- 0.9%, respectively. Additionally, it was found that the swelling characteristics of hydrogels fabricated with higher PEG chain MW or with MB were more sensitive to increases in DBR. Collectively, the main and cross effects observed between factors enables informed tuning of the swelling and degradation properties of OPF-based hydrogels for various tissue engineering applications. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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