Maniglio Devid, Bissoli Elia, Callone Emanuela, Dirè Sandra, Motta Antonella
BIOtech Research Center, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Via Delle Regole 101, 38123 Trento, Italy.
"Klaus Müller" Magnetic Resonance Lab., Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Via Sommarive 9, 38123 Trento, Italy.
Gels. 2023 Nov 17;9(11):912. doi: 10.3390/gels9110912.
Damages to the intervertebral disc (IVD) due to improper loading or degeneration result in back pain, which is a common disease affecting an increasing number of patients. Different strategies for IVD remediation have been developed, from surgical treatment to disc replacement, by using both metallic and non-metallic materials. Hydrogels are very attractive materials due to their ability to simulate the properties of many soft tissues; moreover, their chemical composition can be varied in order to assure performances similar to the natural disc. In particular, for the replacement of the IVD outer ring, namely, the , the shear properties are of paramount importance. In this work, we produced hydrogels through the photo-induced crosslinking of different mixtures composed of two hydrophilic monofunctional and difunctional polymers, namely, poly(ethyleneglycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMEMA) and poly(ethyleneglycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDMA), together with a hydrophobic molecule, i.e., tert-butyl acrylate (tBA). By changing the ratio among the precursors, we demonstrated the tunability of both the shear properties and hydrophilicity. The structural properties of hydrogels were studied by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). These experiments provided insights on both the structure and molecular dynamics of polymeric networks and, together with information obtained by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), allowed for correlating the physical properties of the hydrogels with their chemical composition.
因负荷不当或退变导致的椎间盘（IVD）损伤会引发背痛，背痛是一种影响患者人数不断增加的常见疾病。已经开发出多种用于修复IVD的策略，从手术治疗到椎间盘置换，使用了金属和非金属材料。水凝胶因其能够模拟许多软组织的特性而成为极具吸引力的材料；此外，其化学成分可以改变，以确保性能与天然椎间盘相似。特别是，对于IVD外环（即 ）的置换，剪切性能至关重要。在这项工作中，我们通过光诱导交联由两种亲水性单官能和双官能聚合物（即聚乙二醇甲基醚甲基丙烯酸酯（PEGMEMA）和聚乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸酯（PEGDMA））以及一种疏水分子（即丙烯酸叔丁酯（tBA））组成的不同混合物来制备水凝胶。通过改变前体之间的比例，我们证明了剪切性能和亲水性的可调性。通过固态核磁共振（NMR）研究了水凝胶的结构性质。这些实验提供了关于聚合物网络结构和分子动力学的见解，并且与差示扫描量热法（DSC）获得的信息一起，能够将水凝胶的物理性质与其化学成分相关联。
