The main advantage of oral protein delivery is that it improves patient compliance and comfort over other routes of administration (i.e. injection), thus leading to a more effective treatment regimen. Although oral protein delivery could benefit many individuals, maintaining the functionality of the protein and low bioavailability of the delivered drug have prevented it from becoming a successf...

Shape-persistent and tough cellulose hydrogels were fabricated by a stepwise solvent exchange from a homogeneous ionic liquid solution of cellulose exposure to methanol vapor. The cellulose hydrogels maintain their shapes under changing temperature, pH, and solvents. The micrometer-scale patterns on the mold were precisely transferred onto the surface of cellulose hydrogels. We also succeeded i...

Hydrogels of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) were synthesized and investigated as pHand temperature-triggered delivery devices for antithrombotic agents. For hydrogels containing greater than 75 tool% N1PAAm, the pH and temperature sensitivity both influenced the overall swelling behavior of the networks. Streptokinase and heparin were loaded into these hydrogels and their relea...

BACKGROUND Wound healing and skin tissue engineering are mediated, in part, by interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). A subset of the ECM, basement membranes (BM), plays a vital role in regulating proper skin healing and function. METHODS ECM-rich, tissue-specific hydrogels were extracted and assembled from dermis samples. These hydrogels contain BM proteins vital to s...

In the present work, hydrogels based on acrylamide (AAm) and acrylic acid (AAc), crosslinked with N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAAm) were prepared by free radical polymerization in solution. The effect of initial AAm/AAc mole ratio and nominal crosslinking ratio (moles of crosslinking agent/moles of polymer repeat unit) on the dynamic and equilibrium swelling behaviour of hydrogels was investi...

Stimulus-responsive hydrogels have been widely used in the field of drug delivery because their three-dimensional pore size and ability to change release rate with external environment. In this paper, temperature-sensitive monomer 2-methyl-2-acrylate-2-(2-methoxyethoxy-ethyl) ethyl ester (MEO2MA) oligoethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA) as well pH-sensitive N,N-Diethylaminoethyl (...

Stimuli-sensitive hydrogels changing their volumes and shapes in response to various stimulations have potential applications in multiple fields. However, these hydrogels have not yet been commercialized due to some problems that need to be overcome. One of the most significant problems is that conventional stimuli-sensitive hydrogels are usually brittle. Here we prepare extremely stretchable t...

Hydrogels are crosslinked polymers with the ability to swell in an aqueous medium. Crosslinking in hydrogels occurs by chemical or physical means depending on the polymer properties and experimental conditions. Owing to a large variety in chemical structure and crosslinking methods, various hydrogels have been prepared for various applications in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. This chapt...