Biomechanical Performances of Networked Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate: Effect of Photoinitiator Concentration, Temperature, and Incubation Time

Nutrient conduit networks can be introduced within the Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEGDA) tissue construct to enable cells to survive in the scaffold. Nutrient conduit networks can be created on PEGDA by macrochannel to nanochannel fabrication techniques. Such networks can influence the mechanical and cell activities of PEGDA scaffold. There is no study conducted to evaluate the effect of nutrient conduit networks on the maximum tensile stress and cell activities of the tissue scaffold. The study aimed to explore the influence of the network architecture on the maximum tensile stress of PEGDA scaffold and compared with the nonnetworked PEGDA scaffold. Our study found that there are 1.78 and 2.23 times decrease of maximum tensile stress due to the introduction of nutrient conduit networks to the PEGDA scaffold at 23°C and 37°C temperature conditions, respectively. This study also found statistically significant effect of network architecture, PI concentration, temperature, and wait time on the maximum failure stress of PEGDA samples (P value < 0.05). Cell viability results demonstrated that networked PEGDA hydrogels possessed increased viability compared to nonnetworked and decreased viability with increased photoinitiator concentrations. The results of this study can be used for the design of PEGDA scaffold with macrosize nutrient conduit network channels.