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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Printing Thermoresponsive Reverse Molds for the Creation of Patterned Two-component Hydrogels for 3D Cell Culture
Published on: July 10, 2013
Bioactive Polyurethane-Poly(ethylene Glycol) Diacrylate Hydrogels for Applications in Tissue Engineering
Yixuan Yuan1, Caleb Tyson2, Annika Szyniec1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA.
Abstract:
Polyurethanes (PUs) are a highly adaptable class of biomaterials that are among some of the most researched materials for various biomedical applications. However, engineered tissue scaffolds composed of PU have not found their way into clinical application, mainly due to the difficulty of balancing the control of material properties with the desired cellular response. A simple method for the synthesis of tunable bioactive poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels containing photocurable PU is described. These hydrogels may be modified with PEGylated peptides or proteins to impart variable biological functions, and the mechanical properties of the hydrogels can be tuned based on the ratios of PU and PEGDA. Studies with human cells revealed that PU-PEG blended hydrogels support cell adhesion and viability when cell adhesion peptides are crosslinked within the hydrogel matrix. These hydrogels represent a unique and highly tailorable system for synthesizing PU-based synthetic extracellular matrices for tissue engineering applications.
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