Biomechanical Performances of Networked Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate: Effect of Photoinitiator Concentration, Temperature, and Incubation Time.

Morshed Khandaker,Jeremiah White,Albert Orock,Ozlem Yasar,Stefano Tarantini

doi:10.1155/2016/3208312

Abstract

Nutrient conduit networks can be introduced within the Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEGDA) tissue construct to enable cells to survive in the scaffold. Nutrient conduit networks can be created on PEGDA by macrochannel to nanochannel fabrication techniques. Such networks can influence the mechanical and cell activities of PEGDA scaffold. There is no study conducted to evaluate the effect of nutrient conduit networks on the maximum tensile stress and cell activities of the tissue scaffold. The study aimed to explore the influence of the network architecture on the maximum tensile stress of PEGDA scaffold and compared with the nonnetworked PEGDA scaffold. Our study found that there are 1.78 and 2.23 times decrease of maximum tensile stress due to the introduction of nutrient conduit networks to the PEGDA scaffold at 23°C and 37°C temperature conditions, respectively. This study also found statistically significant effect of network architecture, PI concentration, temperature, and wait time on the maximum failure stress of PEGDA samples (P value < 0.05). Cell viability results demonstrated that networked PEGDA hydrogels possessed increased viability compared to nonnetworked and decreased viability with increased photoinitiator concentrations. The results of this study can be used for the design of PEGDA scaffold with macrosize nutrient conduit network channels.

Highlights

Tissue engineering is a new field that allows the combination of engineering, biology, and material methods for developing new techniques with potential to create tissues and organs [1]
The stress-strain response of all specimens is characterized as long elastic response, followed by a negligible inelastic region and stable descending response. This result indicates that all Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate (PEGDA) samples have brittle fracture behavior
This result clearly shows the higher PI concentration significantly increased the mechanical integrality of the PEGDA gel

Summary

Introduction

Tissue engineering is a new field that allows the combination of engineering, biology, and material methods for developing new techniques with potential to create tissues and organs [1]. The ability of networked three-dimensional structure to elicit altered cell behaviors, including cell adhesion, has raised heightened interest in the scaffold materials for various biomedical applications, including orthopedic repair and regeneration [2]. Cells in vitro usually do not reproduce in a three-dimensional fashion unless being allowed to grow on scaffolding. Yasar et al [4] used Lindenmayer systems, an elegant fractal-based language algorithm framework, in designing vasculature networks that could potentially be incorporated in hydrogel scaffolds like PEGDA. The reason for using PEGDA over other materials is that PEGDA is 3D networked structures that can be manufactured to allow for the cell growth at higher depth using photolithograph process. It has been found to be a valid method to manufacture multiplelayer scaffolds for allowing the constructions of channels within the scaffold to better distribute nutrients to the cells

Methods

Results

Conclusion