Synthesis and Characterization of Hybrid Hyaluronic Acid-Gelatin Hydrogels

Abstract

Biomimetic hybrid hydrogels have generated broad interest in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Hyaluronic acid (HA) and gelatin (hydrolyzed collagen) are naturally derived polymers and biodegradable under physiological conditions. Moreover, collagen and HA are major components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in most of the tissues (e.g. cardiovascular, cartilage, neural). When used as a hybrid material, HA-gelatin hydrogels may enable mimicking the ECM of native tissues. Although HA-gelatin hybrid hydrogels are promising biomimetic substrates, their material properties have not been thoroughly characterized in the literature. Herein, we generated hybrid hydrogels with tunable physical and biological properties by using different concentrations of HA and gelatin. The physical properties of the fabricated hydrogels including swelling ratio, degradation, and mechanical properties were investigated. In addition, in vitro cellular responses in both two and three dimensional (2D and 3D) culture conditions were assessed. It was found that the addition of gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) into HA methacrylate (HAMA) promoted cell spreading in the hybrid hydogels. Moreover, the hybrid hydrogels showed significantly improved mechanical properties compared to their single component analogs. The HAMA-GelMA hydrogels exhibited remarkable tunability behavior and may be useful for cardiovascular tissue engineering applications.

Development of Electrically Conductive Double‐Network Hydrogels via One‐Step Facile Strategy for Cardiac Tissue Engineering

“…To date, there are lots of photo-crosslinkable gelatin-based hydrogels that have been used in various biomedical applications, ranging from drug delivery, [ 17 ] and cell transplantation [ 18 ] to tissue engineering. [ 19 ] For example, Camci-Unal et al [ 20 ] prepared the hyaluronic acid/ gelatin hybrid hydrogels via photo-crosslinking technology, which can yield in a range of different cellular response for human umbilical vein endothelial cells.…”

Hydrogels for cardiac tissue engineering

“…15 This property enables hydrogels to mimic specific aspects of the tissue microenvironments. 16,17 Hydrogels are extensively used in cardiovascular tissue engineering owing to their ability to support cell adhesion and growth.…”

Protein-based injectable hydrogels towards the regeneration of articular cartilage

“…The HAMA hydrogels have a high level of methacrylation (~80%) than our degree of tyramine substitution, being gels with higher crosslinking levels, which means lower EWC. Even though the same trend is observed, an increase in polymer concentration reduces EWC due to the higher crosslinking density and smaller pore size [122]. a Two pore areas can be distinguished in these compositions.…”

“…Composite hydrogels filled with fibers, textiles or microparticles, hard solid structures within an embedded hydrogel, multi-layered designs, three-dimensional woven composite materials and the combination with a harder hydrogel or polymer (e.g. forming a secondary interpenetrated polymeric network or copolymerization) have been proposed in the literature as possible options [62], [122], [145]- [155].…”

“…The degradation dynamics of Gel/HA hydrogels was studied by enzymatic degradation with a 10 U/ml solution of hyaluronidase and 3 U/mL of collagenase in DPBS, these concentrations being within the range typically used in the bibliography [90], [91], [114], [131], [225], [226]. A mixture of both enzymes was used to study degradation, since it has been demonstrated that the combination of both produces higher degradation rates than when only one is used [69].…”