We investigated the temperature-responsive gelation of collagen/genipin solutions using pepsin-solubilized collagen (PSC) and acid-solubilized collagen (ASC) as substrates. Gelation occurred in the PSC/genipin solutions at genipin concentrations 0-2 mM under moderate change in temperature from 25 to 37°C. The PSC/genipin solutions exhibited fluidity at room temperature for at least 30 min, wher...

We investigated the potential of collagen-genipin sols as biomaterials for treating artificial ulcers following endoscopic submucosal dissection. Collagen sol viscosity increased with condensation, allowing retention on tilted ulcers before gelation and resulting in collagen gel deposition on whole ulcers. The 1.44% collagen sols containing genipin as a crosslinker retained sol fluidity at 23°C...

We have designed and developed a microfluidic system to study the response of cells to controlled gradients of mechanical stiffness in 3D collagen gels. An 'H'-shaped, source-sink network was filled with a type I collagen solution, which self-assembled into a fibrillar gel. A 1D gradient of genipin--a natural crosslinker that also causes collagen to fluoresce upon crosslinking--was generated in...

Application of combining herbal medicine and biomedical material science to nerve regeneration is a new approach. In this study, we describe a novel use of purified genipin, which can be extracted from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, fixing the gelatin to be an extracellular matrix for peripheral nerve regeneration. A 10-mm gap of rat sciatic nerve was created between the proximal and distal nerve ...

Recent research has identified genipin as a promising natural crosslinking agent for biocompatible hydrogels as genipin is significantly less cytotoxic than current synthetic crosslinking agents, such as glutaraldehyde. Conveniently, fluorophores can be produced when genipin crosslinks. In this study, fluorescence intensity measurements of genipin crosslinked chitosan-poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) hy...

Introduction: External radiotherapy is the most common method of radiotherapy which the most important problem associated with is that there is no difference between healthy and tumor tissues in dose absorption. One way to differentiate the dose sensitivity is to use metal-based nanoparticles. Bismuth oxide nanoparticles are good candidates for cancer radiotherapy. In this study, we investigate...

The positive interaction between polysaccharides with active phytochemicals found in medicinal plants may represent a strategy to create active wound dressing materials useful for skin repair. In the present work, blended membranes composed of chitosan (Cht) and aloe vera gel were prepared through the solvent casting, and were crosslinked with genipin to improve their properties. Topography, sw...

Treatment of damaged intervertebral discs is a significant clinical problem and, despite advances in the repair and replacement of the nucleus pulposus, there are few effective strategies to restore defects in the annulus fibrosus. An annular repair material should meet three specifications: have a modulus similar to the native annulus tissue, support the growth of disc cells, and maintain adhe...

Degenerative disc disease has been implicated as a major component of spine pathology. However, although biological repair of the degenerate disk would be the ideal treatment, there is no universally accepted scaffold for tissue engineering of the intervertebral disk. To help remedy this, we investigated the gelation kinetics of various concentrations (2.5 to 10%) of two water-soluble chitosan ...