A Combined Approach of Double Network Hydrogel and Nanocomposites Based on Hyaluronic Acid and Poly(ethylene glycol) Diacrylate Blend.

Alfredo Ronca,Ugo D’Amora,Yujiang Fan,Luigi Ambrosio,Xingdong Zhang,Maria Raucci,Hai Lin

doi:10.3390/ma11122454

Abstract

In this study, an innovative polymer blend, based on double network (DN) approach, has been developed by integrating a poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) network into a chemically modified hyaluronic acid sodium salt (HAs) hydrogel matrix. Here, the HAs was chemically functionalized with photocrosslinkable moieties by reacting with maleic anhydride (MAA) to obtain a maleated hyaluronic acid (MaHA). Furthermore, nanocomposite DN hydrogels were suitably prepared by physical blending of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HAp), obtained by sol-gel synthesis, within the hydrogel. Physico-chemical, thermal, morphological and mechanical analyses were performed. Results showed enhanced mechanical properties and a homogenous microstructure as highlighted by mechanical and morphological investigations. This suggests that nanocomposite DN hydrogels are promising candidates for biomedical applications.

Highlights

An ideal biomaterial has to satisfy specific requirements such as mechanical properties tuned to the specific application, high biocompatibility and sufficient stability against physiological media, preventing material degradation without inducing adverse phenomena at the site of implant [1,2,3,4].Natural polymers are largely available in nature and by physical or chemical crosslinking it is possible to prepare a group of polymers called hydrogels [5,6,7]
The spectrum of hyaluronic acid sodium salt (HAs) displays a characteristic peak at 1.9 ppm, which corresponds to the methyl protons (–CH3 ) of the
This peak has been used as the reference to calculate the degree of substitution (DS) of modified polymers

Summary

Introduction

An ideal biomaterial has to satisfy specific requirements such as mechanical properties tuned to the specific application, high biocompatibility and sufficient stability against physiological media, preventing material degradation without inducing adverse phenomena at the site of implant [1,2,3,4].Natural polymers are largely available in nature and by physical or chemical crosslinking it is possible to prepare a group of polymers called hydrogels [5,6,7]. Blends of synthetic and natural polymers allow to obtain materials that merge a wide range of physico-chemical properties of synthetic polymers as well as the biocompatibility, the safety and side effects avoidance of natural ones [16,17,18,19]. These materials are mainly characterized by the presence of functional

Methods

Results

Conclusion