The diffusion and transport of substances between a hydrogel and its environment have received tremendous research interest, due to the wide range of applications of hydrogel materials in fields related to drug carriers and drug delivery vehicles. To date, much research has been done to tailor the diffusion and transport of substances through hydrogels, where most efforts were focused on tuning...

BACKGROUND Hydrogels are being actively investigated for direct delivery of cells or bioactive molecules to the heart after myocardial infarction (MI) to prevent cardiac functional loss. We postulate that immobilization of the prosurvival angiopoietin-1-derived peptide, QHREDGS, to a chitosan-collagen hydrogel could produce a clinically translatable thermoresponsive hydrogel to attenuate post-M...

Using strong fibers to reinforce a hydrogel is highly desirable but difficult. Such a composite would combine the attributes of a solid that provides strength and a liquid that transports matter. Most hydrogels, however, are brittle, allowing the fibers to cut through the hydrogel when the composite is loaded. Here we circumvent this problem by using a recently developed tough hydrogel. We fabr...

The objective of this study is to design biodegradable hydrogels for the controlled release of low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) and evaluate the biological activity. Gelatin was cationized by chemically introducing ethylene diamine into the carboxyl groups in different conditions to obtain cationized gelatins. The cationized gelatin was mixed with the LMWH in aqueous solution to form the com...

The new sugar-based gelators 1 and 2 were synthesized, and their gelation abilities were evaluated in organic solvents and in water. Compound 1 gelates both water and organic solvents whereas 2 gelates only organic solvents. Superstructural difference between hydrogel 1 and organogel 2 was investigated by CD, TEM, AFM, 1H NMR and XRD. Hydrogel 1 displays a well-developed helical ribbon structur...

An enzyme-incorporated hydrogel made of alginate and polyacrylamide shows a linearly increased activity with the enlargement of surface area upon stretching.

Biomaterial injection-based therapies have showed cautious success in restoration of cardiac function and prevention of adverse remodelling into heart failure after myocardial infarction (MI). However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Computational studies utilised simplified representations of the therapeutic myocardial injectates. Wistar rats underwent experimental infarctio...

In the present work, a novel interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogel composed of crosslinked chitosan and poly(acryl acid) was prepared by crosslinking using glutaraldehyde. The model drug, cis-platin, was loaded into the resulted IPN hydrogel. Water absorption of the hydrogel could be switched on and off swiftly by control of pH of the surrounding environment. Therefore, the synthesize...

Hydrogels with organized structure have attracted remarkable attentions for bio-related applications. Among the preparation of hierarchical hydrogel materials, fabrication of hydrogel with multi-layers is an important branch. Although the generation mechanism of layers had been fully discussed, sub-layer structure was not sufficiently studied. In this research, multi-layered chitosan hydrogel w...