Conditions for obtaining polyvinyl alcohol/trisodium trimetaphosphate hydrogels as vitreous humor substitute

Hydrogels are polymeric materials with numerous medical and biological applications because of their physicochemical properties. In this context, the conditions were defined for obtaining a hydrogel with characteristics similar to the vitreous humor using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and trisodium trimetaphosphate (STMP). The concentration of PVA (X1 ), PVA/STMP ratio (X2 ), and initial pH (X3 ) were modified, and their effect was analyzed in terms of the refractive index (Y1 ), density (Y2 ), dynamic viscosity (Y3 ), and final pH (Y4 ). The results demonstrated that X1 interferes with Y1 , Y2 , and Y3 , and X2 interferes with Y2 and Y3 . The best condition for obtaining a hydrogel with characteristics similar to the vitreous humor was 4.2586% PVA (wt/wt), STMP/PVA ratio of 1:6.8213 (wt/wt), and initial pH of 9.424. DSC, ATR-FTIR, swelling degree, and AFM analysis confirmed the PVA reticulation with STMP. Furthermore, STMP increased the glass transition temperature and decreased the water uptake of ∼50% of the hydrogels, which can be explained by the crosslinking of PVA chains. Infrared spectroscopy revealed a decrease of hydroxyl bonds and confirmed the reticulation between PVA and STMP. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 1386-1395, 2016.