Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SB3-O007 Invited Talk
ALGINATE / GELLAN GUM DOUBLE NETWORK HYDROGELS FOR
TISSUE ENGINEERING
Maria Fernanda Araiza Verduzco 1 , Eustolia Rodriguez Velazquez 2 , Georgina Pina Luis 1 , Manuel
Alatorre Meda 1
1
Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, Centro de Graduados e Investigacion en Quimica, Mexico.
2 Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Facultad de Odontologia-Tijuana, Mexico.
Tissue Engineering (TE) is an emerging branch of medicine that applies the
principles of biology, materials science, and engineering to the development of
biomaterials, referred to as scaffolds, to restore, maintain or improve tissue
functions. Double network (DN) hydrogels are novel interpenetrated networks
that are attracting the interest of the scientific community as functional
synthetic scaffolds. The main feature of DN hydrogels is that they present
enhanced mechanical properties related to their inner structure. Additionally, if
produced natural polymers, they can also exhibit cytocompatible properties
related to their friendly metabolism inside the body. This work explores the
synthesis and characterization of DN hydrogels produced gellan gum (GG) and
three different photosensitive methacrylated derivatives of ALG, referred to as
ALGM1 (ALG modified with methacrylic anhydride), ALGM2 (ALG modified with
glycidil methacrylate), and ALGM3 (ALG modified with aminoethyl methacrylate).
The DN hydrogels were synthesized by a sequential crosslinking of the
polymeric compounds, namely the photocrosslinking of the ALG derivatives first
and the ionic crosslinking of GG with CaCl2 next. FT-IR, NMR 1 H, and TGA analyses
were used to characterize the ALG derivatives and the DN hydrogels. On the
other hand, SEM and mechanical assays were carried out to characterize the
internal structure of the DN hydrogels and the role of the selected methacrylate
groups on the mechanical properties, respectively. Finally, degradation studies
with Lysozyme and Trypsin were performed to evaluate the stability of the DN
hydrogels against enzymatic attacks. FT-IR, NMR 1 H, and TGA analyses
demonstrated the functionalization of ALG with the different methacrylate
groups and the expected signals corresponding to the covalent and ionic
crosslinking processes in the DN hydrogels. The SEM characterization showed
the formation of large interconnected pores. The mechanical tests proved that
the DN hydrogels were highly stable against fracture, resisting an applied load
of up to 1.8 MPa (all applied loads were recorded at 80% strain). Finally, the
biodegradation assays demonstrated that, in general, all DN hydrogels showed
stability against degradation with both enzymes. Taken together, the attained