Seong Yun-Jeong, Lin Guang, Kim Byung Jun, Kim Hyoun-Ee, Kim Sukwha, Jeong Seol-Ha
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Department of Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea.
ACS Omega. 2019 Aug 12;4(9):13834-13844. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01475. eCollection 2019 Aug 27.
For hydrogel injection applications, it is important to improve the strength and biostability of the hydrogel as well as its injectability to pass easily through the needle. Making gel microspheres is one approach to achieve these improvements. Granulization of a bulk hydrogel is a common procedure used to form microsized particles; however, the nonuniform size and shape cause an uneven force during injection, damaging the surrounding tissue and causing pain to the patients. In this study, injectable hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hybrid hydrogel microspheres were fabricated using a water-in-oil emulsion process. The injectability was significantly enhanced because of the relatively uniform size and spherical shape of the hydrogel formulates. In addition, the biostability and mechanical strength were also increased owing to the increased cross-linking density compared with that of conventionally fabricated gel microparticles. This tendency was further improved after in situ calcium phosphate precipitation. Our findings demonstrate the great potential of HA-based hydrogel microspheres for various clinical demands requiring injectable biomaterials.
对于水凝胶注射应用而言，提高水凝胶的强度、生物稳定性以及其易于通过针头的可注射性非常重要。制备凝胶微球是实现这些改进的一种方法。将块状水凝胶制成颗粒是形成微米级颗粒的常用方法；然而，尺寸和形状的不均匀会导致注射过程中力不均匀，损伤周围组织并给患者带来疼痛。在本研究中，采用油包水乳液法制备了基于透明质酸（HA）的可注射混合水凝胶微球。由于水凝胶制剂相对均匀的尺寸和球形形状，其可注射性得到了显著提高。此外，与传统制备的凝胶微粒相比，交联密度增加，生物稳定性和机械强度也有所提高。原位磷酸钙沉淀后，这种趋势进一步得到改善。我们的研究结果表明，基于HA的水凝胶微球在各种需要可注射生物材料的临床需求方面具有巨大潜力。
