Soft alginate hydrogels support robust neurite outgrowth, but their rapid disintegration in solutions of high ionic strength restricts them from long-term in vivo applications. Aiming to enhance the mechanical stability of soft alginate hydrogels, we investigated how changes in pH and ionic strength during gelation influence the swelling, stiffness, and disintegration of a three-dimensional (3D...

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Open cultivation systems to monoculture microorganisms are promising for the commercialization of low-value commodities because they reduce the cultivation cost. However, contamination from biological pollutants frequently impedes the process. Here we propose a cultivation method using hollow hydrogel microfibers encapsulating microorganisms. Due to the pore size, hydrogels allow nutrients and ...

Alginates are important hydrogels for meniscus tissue engineering as they support the meniscal fibrochondrocyte phenotype and proteoglycan production, the extracellular matrix (ECM) component chiefly responsible for its viscoelastic properties. Here, we systematically evaluated four biomedical- and two nonbiomedical-grade alginates for their capacity to provide the best three-dimensional (3-D) ...

© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1 wileyonlinelibrary.com in a shear-thinning, physical hydrogel can provide mechanical protection that prevents cell membrane damage during injection. [ 8 ] Weak hydrogels with shear moduli < 50 Pa were previously found to offer the best protection; however, these materials typically biodegrade too quickly (within 1–2 weeks) to support long-term...

Wearable pressure sensing solutions have promising future for practical applications in health monitoring and human/machine interfaces. Here, a highly sensitive, low-cost, wearable pressure sensor based on conductive single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/alginate hydrogel spheres is reported. Conductive and piezoresistive spheres are embedded between conductive electrodes (indium tin oxide-coat...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of hydrogel charge affected the behaviors of hepatocytes in vitro. The hydrogel charge was adjusted by tuning the cross-linking between the alginate (Alg) and the poly-L-lysine (PLL). HepG2, a human hepatocyte cell line, was conducted as the cell model. The cellular behaviors on hydrogels were measured by cell morphology observation, viabilit...

In this work, gelatin was crosslinked with oxidized alginate in the presence of borax yielding a hybrid biohydrogel system with the ability to self-repair upon mechanical damage. A judicious balance between concentration, stoichiometric ratio of the two biopolymers and gelatin source was found necessary to achieve optimal self-healing properties of these biohydrogels. The pH was found to have a...

Despite the success of alginate scaffolds and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy in cardiac failure treatment, the impact of the physicochemical environment provided by alginate matrices on cell behavior has never been investigated. The purpose of this work was double: to determine the alginate composition influence on (1) encapsulated rat MSC viability, paracrine activity, and phenotype in...