Department of Biomaterials, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
J Biomed Mater Res A. 2012 May;100(5):1316-23. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.34071. Epub 2012 Feb 28.
Exploring strategies to induce the mineralization of hydrogels is an important step toward the development of hydrogel-based materials for bone regeneration. In the current study, the effect of incorporating hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles on the mineralization capacity of an inert poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based hydrogel was investigated. HA nanoparticles were either directly loaded into oligo(poly(ethylene glycol) fumarate) (OPF) hydrogel or loaded into commonly used gelatin microsphere porogens that were subsequently integrated in the OPF matrix. Mineralization of composites after immersion of the samples in simulated body fluid up to 28 days was assessed. In contrast to the blank OPF hydrogel, the HA-containing constructs strongly mineralized such that the average rate of calcium uptake by the material was enhanced by orders of magnitude. The mineral formed was observed to be apatitic and needle shaped. The presented method allows modification of inert PEG-based hydrogels into bioactive biomaterials for applications in bone regeneration.
探索诱导水凝胶矿化的策略是开发用于骨再生的水凝胶基材料的重要步骤。在本研究中，研究了掺入羟基磷灰石（HA）纳米粒子对惰性聚（乙二醇）（PEG）基水凝胶矿化能力的影响。HA 纳米粒子要么直接负载到低聚（聚（乙二醇）琥珀酸酯）（OPF）水凝胶中，要么负载到常用的明胶微球致孔剂中，然后再整合到 OPF 基质中。将样品浸入模拟体液中长达 28 天后，评估了复合材料的矿化情况。与空白 OPF 水凝胶相比，含有 HA 的构建体强烈矿化，使得材料的钙吸收速率提高了几个数量级。观察到形成的矿物为磷灰石和针状。所提出的方法允许将惰性 PEG 基水凝胶改性为用于骨再生的生物活性生物材料。
