Short-term biocompatibility studies of hydrogel-grafted collagen copolymers

Synthetic hydrogels are an interesting class of biomaterials. Hydrogels were prepared by the graft copolymerization of either HEMA and MMA or HEMA and GDMA onto soluble collagen using different cross linking agents. The tissue compatibility of these hydrogels was studied by implantation in rats. It was observed that there were no untoward rejection phenomena of these gels when implanted in vivo except for the typical healing process. The hydrogels were well tolerated and might well serve as good tissue equivalents.