BACKGROUND Three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel-based stem cell therapies contribute to enhanced therapeutic efficacy in treating diseases, and determining the optimal mechanical strength of the hydrogel in vivo is important for therapeutic success. We evaluated the proliferation of human neural stem cells incorporated within in situ-forming hydrogels and compared the effect of hydrogels with differ...

High-throughput fabrication of graphically encoded hydrogel microparticles is achieved by combining flow contact lithography in a multichannel microfluidic device and a high capacity 25 mm LED UV source. Production rates of chemically homogeneous particles are improved by two orders of magnitude. Additionally, the custom-built contact lithography instrument provides an affordable solution for p...

Paper/polyacrylic acid (PAA) composites were prepared using a microcrystalline cellulose (MCC)-reinforced PAA hydrogel. The MCC-reinforced PAA hydrogel was prepared by in-situ UV light-induced polymerization of acrylic acid in the presence of MCC. The experimental results showed that the presence of MCC improved the water absorption capacity of the resulting PAA hydrogel. The addition of 1 wt% ...

Enzymes can catalyze various reactions with high selectivity and are involved in many important biological processes. However, the general instability of enzymes against high temperature often limits their application. To address this, we synthesized a trehalose-based hydrogel in two steps from commercial starting materials with minimal purification procedures. Mono- and multi-functional trehal...

A novel cross-linked honey hydrogel dressing was developed by incorporating Malaysian honey into hydrogel dressing formulation, cross-linked and sterilized using electron beam irradiation (25 kGy). In this study, the physical properties of the prepared honey hydrogel and its wound healing efficacy on deep partial thickness burn wounds in rats were assessed. Skin samples were taken at 7, 14, 21,...

Tissue adhesion is a common complication after surgery. In this work, a dexamethasone loaded polymeric micelles in thermosensitive hydrogel composite (Dex hydrogel) was prepared, which combined the anti-adhesion barrier with controlled release of anti-adhesion drug. Dexamethasone (Dex) was encapsulated in polymeric micelles (Dex micelles), and then the Dex micelles were loaded into biodegradabl...

Cell-based biosensors have become a research hotspot in biosensors and bioelectronics fields. The main feature of cell-based biosensors is the immobilization of living cell on the surface of transducers. Different types of polymers which are used as scaffolds for cell growth should be biocompatible and have reactive functional groups for further attachment of biomolecules. In this work, the cel...

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...

Development of a biomimetic 3D culture system for drug screening is necessary to fully understand the in vivo environment. Previously, a self-assembling peptide hydrogel has been reported; the hydrogel exhibited physiological properties superior to a 3D cell culture matrix. In this work, further research using H9e hydrogel with HeLa cells was carried out considering H9e hydrogel's interaction w...