The development of an artificial extracellular matrix (ECM) is important to regenerative medicine because the ECM plays complex and dynamic roles in the regulation of cell behavior. In this study, nucleic acid aptamers were applied to functionalize hydrogels for mimicking the adhesion sites of the ECM. The results showed that nucleic acid aptamers could be incorporated into polyethylene glycol ...

New superabsorbent hydrogels were synthesized through free radical graft copolymerization of partially neutralized acrylic acid (AA) and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) onto carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) backbones. The structure and morphology of the synthesized superabsorbent hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microsco...

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels are highly biocompatible materials extensively used for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, controlled drug release, and tissue engineering. In this work, PEG cross-linked hydrogels, synthesized under various conditions, were used to grow lysozyme crystals by the counterdiffusion technique. Crystallization experiments were conducted using a three-la...

Novel non-ionic hydrogels were synthesized by radical homopolymerization of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VP) or by radical copolymerization of VP with methylacrylate (MA). A macroinimer (MIM) was used as a crosslinker and initiator, as well. The percentage of mass swelling ratios (S(M)), the molecular weight between crosslinks (M(c)) and Young's modulus of the hydrogels were investigated. The hydroge...

We report the spatiotemporal control of a 3D coculture by combining photocurable and chemically degradable hydrogels for coculture of embryonic stem (ES) cells with HepG2 cells. ES cells were encapsulated in micropatterned photocurable poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. The cell-laden PEG hydrogels were then encapsulated in calcium-alginate (Ca-Alg) hydrogel containing HepG2 cells. The ES c...

Poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels have a significant range of mechanical properties based on compositional and processing parameters. Biodegradable hydrogels based on Poly(vinyl alcohol) were prepared for controlled drug delivery of bovine serum albumin. These hydrogels were synthesized by a crosslinking technique using glutaraldehyde as a crosslinker. Hydrogels containing drug were prepared by dir...

This paper introduces a method for fabricating microscale DNA hydrogels using irradiation with patterned light. Optical fabrication allows for the flexible and tunable formation of DNA hydrogels without changing the environmental conditions. Our scheme is based on local heat generation via the photothermal effect, which is induced by light irradiation on a quenching species. We demonstrate expe...

Shape-persistent and tough cellulose hydrogels were fabricated by a stepwise solvent exchange from a homogeneous ionic liquid solution of cellulose exposure to methanol vapor. The cellulose hydrogels maintain their shapes under changing temperature, pH, and solvents. The micrometer-scale patterns on the mold were precisely transferred onto the surface of cellulose hydrogels. We also succeeded i...

Hydrogels have many different applications in the field of regenerative medicine. Biodegradable, injectable hydrogels could be utilized as delivery systems, cell carriers, and scaffolds for tissue engineering. Injectable hydrogels are an appealing scaffold because they are structurally similar to the extracellular matrix of many tissues, can often be processed under relatively mild conditions, ...

Different from the conventional irreversible covalent conjugations, a simple and efficient dynamic Schiff base covalent assembly is developed to construct the stable and smart dipeptide-protein hydrogels under mild conditions. Diphenylalanine-hemoglobin hydrogel is chosen to investigate the gelation formation process and mechanism. It is found that such assembled dipeptide-protein hydrogels are...