The study of hydrogels and their response to external environment is of special interest because of their potential as drug delivery systems,1,2 actuators,3 and separation devices.4,5 Temperature-sensitive hydrogels undergo a reversible swellingdeswelling transition with a small change of temperature near the phase transition point.6 A frequently studied thermosensitive hydrogel is based on sol...

Purpose: The aim of this work was to synthesize superporous hydrogels of rosiglitazone using chitosan and to study its swelling behaviour for application as a gastroretentive drug delivery system. Methods: Chitosan superporous hydrogels were synthesized using glyoxal as a crosslinking agent by gas blowing method. The effect of pH and ionic strength on the swelling ratio was determined. Swelling...

Stimuli-sensitive hydrogels are an exciting class of materials with widespread potential for use in engineering and biomedical applications. The design of advanced functional devices using hydrogels requires an in-depth understanding of the physics and behaviour of such materials. While theoretical tools exist, they are often limited to simple cases. Thus, computational methods are necessary to...

Responsive hydrogels functionalized with molecular recognition agents can undergo large volume changes upon interactions with specific chemical species. These responsive hydrogels can function as chemical sensing materials if the hydrogel volumes are monitored by using devices such as photonic crystals (PhC). An important criterion of merit is the responsiveness of these sensing hydrogels. Gene...

The spatial presentation of immobilized extracellular matrix (ECM) cues and matrix mechanical properties play an important role in directed and guided cell behavior and neovascularization. The goal of this work was to explore whether gradients of elastic modulus, immobilized matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-sensitivity, and YRGDS cell adhesion ligands are capable of directing 3D vascular sprout f...

New antimicrobial hydrogels were prepared via reaction of functionalized-Tragacanth Gum biopolymer by glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride (QTG) with acrylamide (AM). Characterization of the QTG hydrogels with AM (QTG-AM) was carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and 1HNMR. Swelling behaviour of the QTG hydrogels was investigated on the p...