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Updated: Jun 9, 2026
Injectable Supramolecular Polymer-Nanoparticle Hydrogels for Cell and Drug Delivery Applications
Published on: February 7, 2021
Structural, mechanical and osmotic properties of injectable hyaluronan-based composite hydrogels
Ferenc Horkay1, Jules Magda, Mataz Alcoutlabi
1Section on Tissue Biophysics and Biomimetics, Program on Pediatric Imaging and Tissue Sciences, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, 13 South Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-5772.
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The osmotic and scattering properties of hyaluronan-based composite hydrogels composed of stiff biopolymer chains (carboxymethylated thiolated hyaluronan (CMHA-S)) crosslinked by a flexible polymer (polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA)) are investigated and analyzed in terms of the scaling theory. The total pre-gel polymer weight concentration is varied between 0.5 wt.% and 3.2 wt.%, while the mole ratio between the reactive PEG chain ends and the thiolated HA moieties is changed between 0.15 and 1.0. The shear modulus G of the fully swollen gels exhibits a stronger dependence on pre-gel concentration than on the crosslink density. Osmotic deswelling measurements reveal that the osmotic mixing pressure depends on the weight ratio CMHA-S/PEGDA, and is practically unaffected by the pre-gel concentration. Small-angle neutron scattering observations indicate that the thermodynamic properties of these composite gels are governed by total polymer concentration, i.e., specific interactions between the two polymeric components do not play a significant role.
