Bespoke hydrogels for tissue engineering

What is it about?

A water-soluble azide-functionalised chitosan was crosslinked with propiolic acid ester-functional poly-(ethylene glycol) using copper-free click chemistry. The resultant hydrogel materials were formed within 5–60 min at 37 °C and resulted in mechanically robust materials with tuneable properties such as swelling, mechanical strength and degradation. Importantly, the hydrogels supported mesenchymal stem cell attachment and proliferation and were also non-toxic to encapsulated cells. As such these studies indicate that the hydrogels have potential to be used as injectable biomaterials for tissue engineering.

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