Pluronics as crosslinking agents for collagen: novel amphiphilic hydrogels

Abstract

A series of Pluronic samples (L61, L121, F68, F108) were investigated as collagen crosslinking agents to determine their ability to improve the Young's modulus of a collagen hydrogel, while simultaneously serving as surfactants for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The crosslinked collagen matrices were prepared by blending type I bovine collagen with either Pluronics or SWNTs dispersed in an aqueous Pluronic solution and crosslinked utilizing carbodiimide chemistry. The resulting material was a crosslinked collagen hydrogel with sufficient mechanical strength to be manipulated and transferred without damaging the matrix. Differential scanning calorimetry confirmed a change in the denaturation temperature for hydrogels prepared using Pluronic or Pluronic/SWNT solutions. Water uptake analysis confirmed the crosslinked matrices to be hydrogels. These collagen hydrogels produced with Pluronics as the crosslinking agents exhibited a Young's modulus 3 to 9 times greater than collagen hydrogels produced in the absence of any crosslinking agent, regardless of polymer molecular weight. However, non-covalent incorporation of SWNTs was not found to affect the Young's modulus of the resulting collagen hydrogels at the incorporation levels achieved with the Pluronics surfactants.

The bioink: A comprehensive review on bioprintable materials

“…Extrusion-based bioprinting has utilized collagen alone as a bioink (Smith et al, 2004); however, mixing it with Pluronic® has generated promising results (Homenick et al, 2011). The cell number increased significantly after 24 hours post-bioprinting demonstrating that collagen is suitable for cell growth.…”

High-Yield, Single-Step Separation of Metallic and Semiconducting SWCNTs Using Block Copolymers at Low Temperatures

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“…as a sacrificial material (either considered a fugitive ink [132]) or a support material [133] to create a vascular network as discussed in details in Section 5.…”