Collagen is a widely used biomaterial in cardiac tissue engineering studies. However, as a natural material, it suffers from variability between batches that can complicate the standardization of culture conditions. In contrast, synthetic materials are modifiable, have well-defined structures and more homogeneous batches can be produced. In this study, several collagen-like synthetic self-assem...

Hydrogels, due to their unique potentials such as high-water content and hydrophilicity are interest for the controlled release of drug molecules. The present study aims to create a controlled-release system through the preparation and characterization of hydrogels based on pH-sensitive polymers such as poly (acrylic acid). Poly (acrylic acid), p(AA), hydrogel has been synthesized by radical po...

Novel pH-sensitive hydrogels were developed as suitable candidates for carriers in bioMEMS devices as well as for oral delivery of therapeutic peptides and proteins due to their ability to respond to environmental pH change. Macromonomers containing various PEG molecular weights were synthesized and used to prepare P(MAA-g-EG) hydrogels were by photopolymerization. P(MAA-g-EG) hydrogels showed ...

Poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) hydrogels, poly(AAm-co-AAc), were synthesized by free radical polymerization in solution using N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAAm) as the crosslinker. The structural parameters and the swelling behavior of the synthesized hydrogels were investigated for varying nominal crosslinking ratio and composition of the hydrogels. The use of hydrogels for drug release was...

Stimuli-sensitive hydrogels have been intensively studied because of their potential applications in drug delivery, cell culture, and actuator design. Although hydrogels with directed unidirectional response, i.e. capable of bending actuated by different chemical components reaction in response to several stimuli including water and electric fields, these hydrogels are capable of being actuated...

Gamma irradiation of aqueous solutions of a synthetic heparinoid polyelectrolyte results in the formation of hydrogels, varying in water content and mechanical strength. The equilibrium water content and the mechanical strength of the hydrogels are dependent on the initial polyelectrolyte concentration, the molecular weight of the polyelectrolyte, the percentage of double bonds in the polyelect...

Hydrogels are widely used in the biomedical field. Their main purposes are either to deliver biological active agents or to temporarily fill a defect until they degrade and are followed by new host tissue formation. However, for this latter application, biodegradable hydrogels are usually not capable to sustain any significant load. The development of biodegradable hydrogels presenting load-bea...

Rapid advances are taking place to develop hydrogels of high stretchability and toughness, but fatigue fracture has not been studied for any hydrogels. This negligence hinders the development of hydrogels and their applications. Herewe initiate a study of fatigue fracture of hydrogels.We choose polyacrylamide hydrogel as a model material. To place fatigue fracture in context, we apply monotonic...

In this study, new antimicrobial hydrogels were prepared via reaction of functionalized-tragacanthgum (TG) biopolymer by quaternary ammonium functionalization of TG (QTG) with acrylic acid(AA). Characterization of the QTG hydrogels (QTG-AA) was carried out by FTIR,thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and 1H NMR. Dynamic mechanical analysis, (DMA) wasconducted to characteriz...

Adsorption and controlled release of terbinafine hydrochloride (TER-HCl) to and from pH sensitive poly(acrylamide/maleic acid) (P(AAm/MA)) hydrogels were investigated. P(AAm/MA) hydrogels were prepared by irradiating the ternary mixtures of AAm/MA/and water by gamma-rays at ambient temperature. Antifungal drug, TER-HCl containing hydrogels, at different drug to polymer ratios, was prepared by d...