Self-assembled nanogels made of hydrophobized pullulan were obtained using a versatile, simple, reproducible and low-cost method. In a first reaction pullulan was modified with hydroxyethyl methacrylate or vinyl methacrylate, further modified in the second step with hydrophobic 1-hexadecanethiol, resulting as an amphiphilic material, which self-assembles in water via the hydrophobic interaction...

Nanofiber-based hydrogels (nanogels) with different, covalently bound peptides were used as an extracellular environment for lens epithelial cells (LECs) in order to modulate the capsular opacification (CO) response after lens surgery in a porcine eye model. Lenses were divided into 15 groups (n = 4 per group), the lens content was removed and the empty capsules were refilled with nanogel witho...

PURPOSE Nanogel, a nanoparticle prepared from a cross-linked hydrophilic polymer network, has many biomedical applications. A radiation technique has recently been introduced as one of the appropriate methods for the preparation of polymeric nanogels due to its additive-free initiation and easy control procedure. METHODS We have investigated the formation of nano-sized polymeric gels, based o...

Novel nanogels that possess the capacity to change their physico-chemical properties in response to external stimuli are promising drug-delivery candidates for the treatment of severe skin diseases. As thermoresponsive nanogels (tNGs) are capable of enhancing penetration through biological barriers such as the stratum corneum and are taken up by keratinocytes of human skin, potential adverse co...

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) show potential for the treatment of a wide variety of pathologies with a known genetic origin through sequence-specific gene silencing. However, siRNAs do not have favorable drug-like properties and need to be packaged into nanoscopic carriers that are designed to guide the siRNA to the cytoplasm of the target cell. In this report biodegradable cationic dextran n...

Responsive catalytic hybrid nanogels with Au nanoparticle cores and a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) based gel shell are prepared through a novel one-pot approach. The embedded Au nanoparticles demonstrate both a pH-modulated catalytic activity and anti-aggregation properties upon recycling.

DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF A NEW CLASS OF SELF-CROSS-LINKED POLYMER NANOGELS MAY 2011 SIRIPORN JIWPANICH B.Sc., CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY M.Sc., CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Sankaran Thayumanavan The design and engineering of nanoscopic drug delivery vehicles that stably encapsulate lipophilic drug molecules, transport their loaded cargo...

Drug releasing shape memory polymers (SMPs) were prepared from poly(thiourethane) networks that were coated with drug loaded nanogels through a UV initiated, surface mediated crosslinking reaction. Multifunctional thiol and isocyanate monomers were crosslinked through a step-growth mechanism to produce polymers with a homogeneous network structure that exhibited a sharp glass transition with 97...

Nanogels are hydrogels formed by connecting nanoscopic micelles dispersed in an aqueous medium, which give an opportunity for incorporating hydrophilic payloads to the exterior of the micellar networks and hydrophobic payloads in the core of the micelles. Biomedical and pharmaceutical applications of nanogels have been explored for tissue regeneration, wound healing, surgical device, implantati...

Alginate microparticles and nanoparticles crosslinked with Ca+2 ions are frequently employed in biomedical applications. Here we use microemulsion polymerization to prepare alginate nanoparticles (nanogels) using different crosslinking ions (Ca+2, Sr+2, Ba+2) to encapsulate a model protein, urease enzyme (jackbeans). With alginate concentrations of 0.2wt% in the aqueous phase, emulsion droplets...