Synthesis and Characterization of Carboxymethylcellulose-Methacrylate Hydrogel Cell Scaffolds
Loading...
Links to Files
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2010-08-26
Type of Work
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
Robert Reeves, Andreia Ribeiro, Leonard Lombardo, Richard Boyer and Jennie B. Leach ,Synthesis and Characterization of Carboxymethylcellulose-Methacrylate Hydrogel Cell Scaffolds, Polymers 2010, 2(3), 252-264; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym2030252
Rights
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Abstract
Many carbohydrates pose advantages for tissue engineering applications due to their hydrophilicity, degradability, and availability of chemical groups for modification. For example, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is a water-soluble cellulose derivative that is degradable by cellulase. Though this enzyme is not synthesized by mammalian cells, cellulase and the fragments derived from CMC degradation are biocompatible. With this in mind, we created biocompatible, selectively degradable CMC-based hydrogels that are stable in routine culture, but degrade when exposed to exogenous cellulase. Solutions of CMC-methacrylate and polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate (PEG-DM) were co-crosslinked to form stable hydrogels; we found that greater CMC-methacrylate content resulted in increased gel swelling, protein diffusion and rates of degradation by cellulase, as well as decreased gel shear modulus. CMC-methacrylate/PEG-DM gels modified with the adhesive peptide RGD supported fibroblast adhesion and viability. We conclude that hydrogels based on CMC-methacrylate are suitable for bioengineering applications where selective degradability may be favorable, such as cell scaffolds or controlled release devices.