Abstract
Biological hydrogels are highly promising materials for bone tissue engineering (BTE) due to their high biocompatibility and biomimetic characteristics. However, for advanced and customized BTE, precise tools for material stabilization and tuning material properties are desired while optimal mineralisation must be ensured. Therefore, reagent-free crosslinking techniques such as high energy electron beam treatment promise effective material modifications without formation of cytotoxic by-products. In the case of the hydrogel gelatin, electron beam crosslinking further induces thermal stability enabling biomedical application at physiological temperatures. In the case of enzymatic mineralisation, induced by Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) and mediated by Calcium Glycerophosphate (CaGP), it is necessary to investigate if electron beam treatment before mineralisation has an influence on the enzymatic activity and thus affects the mineralisation process. The presented study investigates electron beam-treated gelatin hydrogels with previously incorporated ALP and successive mineralisation via incubation in a medium containing CaGP. It could be shown that electron beam treatment optimally maintains enzymatic activity of ALP which allows mineralisation. Furthermore, the precise tuning of material properties such as increasing compressive modulus is possible. This study characterizes the mineralised hydrogels in terms of mineral formation and demonstrates the formation of CaP in dependence of ALP concentration and electron dose. Furthermore, investigations of uniaxial compression stability indicate increased compression moduli for mineralised electron beam-treated gelatin hydrogels. In summary, electron beam-treated mineralized gelatin hydrogels reveal good cytocompatibility for MG-63 osteoblast like cells indicating a high potential for BTE applications.
Highlights
Hydrogels are highly promising materials for tissue engineering applications as they demonstrate biocompatibility, biodegradability and biomimetic properties
The present study evaluates the interaction of electron beam-treated gelatin hydrogels containing Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) and mineralised for 6 days in Calcium Glycerophosphate (CaGP) with human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells
This study aimed to demonstrate and investigate the successful utilisation of electron beam irradiation to crosslink gelatin hydrogels with incorporated ALP for subsequent enzymatic mineralisation within CaGP to develop a cytocompatible and versatile material for bone tissue engineering (BTE)
Summary
Hydrogels are highly promising materials for tissue engineering applications as they demonstrate biocompatibility, biodegradability and biomimetic properties. A common strategy to overcome this problem is the incorporation of inorganic particles into the hydrogel matrices such as ceramic CaP, where the particles act as nucleation sites and induce mineralisation [1]. This process usually results in the formation of CaP particle aggregates which does not lead to optimal biomimetic properties and local weaknesses in the hydrogel structure and integrity. As already mentioned, the weak mechanical properties are one of the main disadvantages of hydrogels, which means that their applications without reinforcement are more limited to soft tissue engineering. Due to the mechanical reinforcement caused by the mineralization, they can be considered for the purposes of hard tissue engineering, such as the regeneration of bone tissue [6]
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