Gelatin-Based Photocurable Hydrogels for Corneal Wound Repair

Abstract

In this study, an injectable, photocurable gelatin system, consisting of acrylated gelatin and thiolated gelatin, with tunable mechanical, biodegradation, and biological properties was used as a potential cell-supportive scaffold for the repair of focal corneal wounds. The mechanical property of hydrogels can be readily modified (postcure shear modulus of between 0.3 and 22 kPa) by varying the ratio of acrylate to thiol groups, photointensity, and solid content, and the biodegradation times also varied with the change of solid content. More importantly, the generated hydrogels exhibited excellent cell viability in both cell seeding and cell encapsulation experiments. Furthermore, the hydrogels were found to be biocompatible with rabbit cornea and aided the regeneration of a new tissue under a focal corneal wound (exhibiting epithelial wound coverage in <3d), and ultraviolet irradiation did not have any obvious harmful effect on the cornea and posterior eye segment tissues. Along with their injectability and tunable mechanical properties, the photocurable thiol-acrylate hydrogels showed promise as corneal substitutes or substrates to construct a new corneal tissue.

The Ultrafast and Continuous Fabrication of a Polydimethylsiloxane Membrane by Ultraviolet‐Induced Polymerization

“…Hughes et al [9] reported the photocurable thiol-acrylate hydrogels,w hich are fully cured within 0.5-1 min after UV light exposure.Doyle et al [10] studied afunctionalized hydrophilic polymer with aUV-polymerizable group,poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate,w hich achieves fast polymerization within seconds under UV irradiation. Previous studies also demonstrate the fast nature of UV polymerization in the preparations of accommodating intraocular lens [11] and polymer electrolyte membranes.…”

The Ultrafast and Continuous Fabrication of a Polydimethylsiloxane Membrane by Ultraviolet‐Induced Polymerization

“…Hughes et al . reported the photocurable thiol–acrylate hydrogels, which are fully cured within 0.5–1 min after UV light exposure.…”

Dual-enzymatically crosslinked and injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogels for potential application in tissue engineering

“…The equilibrium water content (EWC) of the formed hydrogels was dened as the weight ratio of water content to the swollen hydrogels. 30 All the hydrogels were soaked in PBS (pH 7.4) at 37 C. Then, the hydrogels were removed from the buffer solution at different time points, placed between two pieces of dried lter paper to remove the excess solution, and then weighed (W s ). The swollen hydrogels were weighted, and the swelling ratio (%) was calculated by the following equation:…”