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Drying and storage effects on poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel mechanical properties and bioactivity
Author(s) -
Luong P. T.,
Browning M. B.,
Bixler R. S.,
CosgriffHernandez E.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.34977
Subject(s) - materials science , ethylene glycol , composite material , chemical engineering , ethylene , self healing hydrogels , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , engineering , catalysis
Hydrogels based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) are increasingly used in biomedical applications because of their ability to control cell‐material interactions by tuning hydrogel physical and biological properties. Evaluation of stability after drying and storage are critical in creating an off‐the‐shelf biomaterial that functions in vivo according to original specifications. However, there has not been a study that systematically investigates the effects of different drying conditions on hydrogel compositional variables. In the first part of this study, PEG‐diacrylate hydrogels underwent common processing procedures (vacuum‐drying, lyophilizing, hydrating then vacuum‐drying), and the effect of this processing on the mechanical properties and swelling ratios was measured. Significant changes in compressive modulus, tensile modulus, and swelling ratio only occurred for select processed hydrogels. No consistent trends were observed after processing for any of the formulations tested. The effect of storage conditions on cell adhesion and spreading on collagen‐ and streptococcal collagen‐like protein (Scl2‐2)‐PEG‐diacrylamide hydrogels was then evaluated to characterize bioactivity retention after storage. Dry storage conditions preserved bioactivity after 6 weeks of storage; whereas, storage in PBS significantly reduced bioactivity. This loss of bioactivity was attributed to ester hydrolysis of the protein linker, acrylate‐PEG‐ N ‐hydroxysuccinimide. These studies demonstrate that these processing methods and dry storage conditions may be used to prepare bioactive PEG hydrogel scaffolds with recoverable functionality after storage. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 102A: 3066–3076, 2014.