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Published on: July 10, 2013
Photo-cross-linked Gelatin Glycidyl Methacrylate/N-Vinylpyrrolidone Copolymeric Hydrogel with Tunable Mechanical
Sina Sharifi1, Hannah Sharifi1, Ali Akbari2
1Disruptive Technology Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Schepens Eye Research Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.
Abstract:
Corneal transplantation is currently the primary treatment for corneal blindness. However, severe global scarcity of donor corneas is driving the scientific community to find novel solutions. One potential solution is to replace the damaged tissue with a biocompatible artificial cornea. Here, gelatin glycidyl methacrylate (GM) and N-vinylpyrrolidone (VP) were cocrosslinked to afford a hybrid bicomponent copolymeric hydrogel with excellent mechanical, structural, and biological properties. Our studies showed that the GM/VP ratio can be adjusted to generate a construct with high tensile modulus and strength of 1.6 and 1.0 MPa, respectively, compared to 14 and 7.5 MPa for human cornea. The construct can tolerate up to 22.4 kPa pressure before retention sutures can tear through it. Due to the presence of a synthetic component, it has a significantly higher stability against collagenase induced degradation, yet it is biocompatible and promotes cellular adhesion, proliferation, and migration under in vitro settings.
