Hyaluronan-based hydrogels have been used extensively in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications with the objective to replace, repair, or promote the regeneration of damaged tissue. Although much research has focused on potential applications, there are still unmet needs such as injectability, specific adhesion properties, and correlations between properties (i.e., mechanical, biological) that are necessary to be studied for successful translational research. In this paper, injectable hyaluronan-based components have been designed, synthesized, and characterized in order to create in situ forming hydrogels when mixed and study the synergistic effects of chemistry (composition), physical properties (stiffness), and biology (adhesion) when in contact with cells or tissue. Specifically, the use of collagen as a blended biomolecule in order to improve adhesion is studied. By creating a tunable library of injectable hydrogels, we studied systematically their physical and chemical properties and explored their use in soft tissue engineering applications.

Injectable hyaluronan-based hydrogels with tunable adhesive and mechanical properties

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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