Pfister Pascal M, Wendlandt Michael, Neuenschwander Peter, Suter Ulrich W
Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Biomaterials. 2007 Feb;28(4):567-75. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2006.09.016. Epub 2006 Oct 4.
Poly(ethylene glycol)-dimethacrylate (PEGDMA)-based hydrogels with adjustable shear modulus within the range of 10kPa to 1MPa and precisely predefinable surface textures on a micro-scale were made. It was observed that the volume of all hydrogels after preparation almost exactly matched the volume of the precursor solution and that there were only slight volume changes upon equilibration in excess solvent. This characteristic swelling behavior enables the preparation of textures on the hydrogel's surface with precisely predefinable dimensions. The behavior can be modeled with the Flory-Huggins theory assuming a concentration-dependent polymer-solvent interaction parameter. Additionally, activation of the hydrogels by electrophilic oxirane groups creates reactive sites that will enable the later grafting of the hydrogel's surface with various specific nucleophiles, e.g. biomolecules. Thus, these hydrogels are particularly suitable as biomaterials for systematic investigations of cellular response to surface topography and elasticity of the substrate, both in vivo and in vitro.
制备了基于聚乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸酯（PEGDMA）的水凝胶，其剪切模量可在10kPa至1MPa范围内调节，并且在微观尺度上具有精确可预定义的表面纹理。观察到制备后所有水凝胶的体积几乎与前体溶液的体积完全匹配，并且在过量溶剂中平衡时只有轻微的体积变化。这种特征性的溶胀行为使得能够在水凝胶表面制备具有精确可预定义尺寸的纹理。该行为可以用弗洛里-哈金斯理论进行建模，假设聚合物-溶剂相互作用参数与浓度有关。此外，亲电环氧乙烷基团对水凝胶的活化产生了反应位点，这将使水凝胶表面能够在以后接枝各种特定的亲核试剂，例如生物分子。因此，这些水凝胶特别适合作为生物材料，用于在体内和体外系统研究细胞对底物表面形貌和弹性的反应。
