Plastic Surgery Department, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; UCL Centre for Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine, Division of Surgery & Interventional Science, University College London, London NW3 2PF, United Kingdom.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London NW1 2PS, United Kingdom.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Jun 1;519:174-185. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.02.049. Epub 2018 Feb 16.
Macroscopic hydrogels are commonly used as injectable scaffolds or fillers, however they may easily obstruct blood vessels, which poses risks and limits their clinical use. In the present study, three types of hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogel micro-particles with non-covalent, covalent semi-interpenetrating and conventional 3D molecular networks, have been designed, fabricated and characterized. The micro-particles are spherical, biconcave or irregular in shape and their diameter ranged between 2.5 and 3.5 µm; their suspensions exhibit a tuneable viscosity, shear-thinning behaviour, dynamic stability and dispersity in microfluidic flow as a result of their specific particulate nature, providing thus a well-controlled injectable platform. Hydrogel particle suspensions also demonstrate an enhanced safety profile, in terms of the dispersity, cell safety, and hemocompatibility. In addition, Rhodamine 6G has successfully been loaded and released from the particles as a model for drug delivery. Functionalisation of hydrogel microparticles using synthetic polymers has been proven to be a cost-effective way to achieve desirable rheological properties and flow dynamic stability with improved physicochemical properties and biocompatibility in vitro, showing promise as a multifunctional biomedical material for various advanced surgical devices and therapies.
宏观水凝胶通常被用作可注射的支架或填充物，然而，它们可能很容易阻塞血管，这带来了风险，并限制了它们的临床应用。在本研究中，设计、制备和表征了三种基于透明质酸（HA）的水凝胶微球，它们具有非共价、共价半互穿和常规 3D 分子网络。微球呈球形、双凹或不规则形状，直径在 2.5 到 3.5μm 之间；它们的悬浮液具有可调节的粘度、剪切稀化行为、动态稳定性和在微流中的分散性，这是由于它们的特殊颗粒性质，提供了一个良好控制的可注射平台。水凝胶颗粒悬浮液在分散性、细胞安全性和血液相容性方面也表现出更高的安全性。此外，罗丹明 6G 已成功从颗粒中加载和释放，作为药物传递的模型。使用合成聚合物对水凝胶微球进行功能化已被证明是一种具有成本效益的方法，可以在体外获得理想的流变性能和流动动力学稳定性，同时改善物理化学性质和生物相容性，有望成为各种先进手术器械和治疗方法的多功能生物医学材料。
