Abstract
As an important natural polysaccharide biomaterial from marine organisms, alginate and its derivatives have shown great potential in the fabrication of biomedical materials such as tissue engineering, cell biology, drug delivery, and pharmaceuticals due to their excellent biological activity and controllable physicochemical properties. Ionic crosslinking is the most common method used in the preparation of alginate-based biomaterials, but ionic crosslinked alginate hydrogels are prone to decompose in physiological solution, which hinders their applications in biomedical fields. In this study, dual crosslinked alginate hydrogel microfibers were prepared for the first time. The ionic crosslinked methacrylated alginate (Alg-MA) hydrogel microfibers fabricated by Microfluidic Fabrication (MFF) system were exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light and covalent crosslink between methacrylate groups avoided the fracture of dual crosslinked macromolecular chains in organizational environment. The chemical structures, swelling ratio, mechanical performance, and stability were investigated. Cell-encapsulated dual crosslinked Alg-MA hydrogel microfibers were fabricated to explore the application in tissue engineering for the first time. The hydrogel microfibers provided an excellent 3D distribution and growth conditions for cells. Cell-encapsulated Alg-MA microfibers scaffolds with functional 3D tissue structures were developed which possessed great potential in the production of next-generation scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Highlights
IntroductionHydrogels possess excellent biocompatibility and unique moisture retention properties, which can provide conditions similar to the cell growth environment in vivo for cells embedded in it [1,2,3]
The degree of methacrylation (DOM) of Alg-MA calculated from the 1 H-NMR spectra was 61.31%
Compared with the Ca2+ ionic crosslinked hydrogel microfibers, the swelling ratio of the dual crosslinked hydrogel microfibers in PBS decreased by 60%, and the weight loss on day 7 of the dual crosslinked hydrogel microfibers in simulated body fluid (SBF) was only 25% of that of Ca2+ ionic crosslinked hydrogel microfibers
Summary
Hydrogels possess excellent biocompatibility and unique moisture retention properties, which can provide conditions similar to the cell growth environment in vivo for cells embedded in it [1,2,3]. The fabrication of cell-laden or cell-embedded hydrogel biomaterials including microfibers, scaffold, microbeads, nano- or micro- capsules, etc., has become hot research topic in the field of biomaterials and these hydrogels show excellent performance as fundamental components in the fields of tissue engineering, cell biology, and tissue regeneration [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. The MFF system contains two or more independent microfluidic channels, which contain different solutions These solutions flow coaxially and separate from each other. When the solutions flow out of the channels, microfibers are fabricated at the interface of the solutions by using ion crosslinking or photopolymerization processes
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