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Full-Text Articles in Polymer Science

Incorporating Insulin Into Alginate-Chitosan 3d-Printed Scaffolds: A Comprehensive Study On Structure, Mechanics, And Biocompatibility For Cartilage Tissue Engineering, Afsaneh Jahani, Mohammad Sagdegh Nourbakhsh, Ali Moradi, Marzieh Mohammadi, Lobat Tayebi Jan 2025

Incorporating Insulin Into Alginate-Chitosan 3d-Printed Scaffolds: A Comprehensive Study On Structure, Mechanics, And Biocompatibility For Cartilage Tissue Engineering, Afsaneh Jahani, Mohammad Sagdegh Nourbakhsh, Ali Moradi, Marzieh Mohammadi, Lobat Tayebi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability worldwide, challenging current treatments to limited cartilage self-healing capacity. Cartilage tissue engineering (CTE) integrates cells, scaffolds, and signaling molecules, with Insulin being utilized as a differentiation biomolecule due to cost-effectiveness, dose-dependent influence on chondrogenesis, suitable biological activity, and ability to activate relevant receptors. Yet, administering differentiation biomolecules through conventional scaffolds poses a persistent challenge. Alginate (Alg) is commonly employed in CTE for its biocompatibility, though it lacks sufficient mechanical properties. Chitosan (Cs), while enhancing scaffold mechanical properties, but does not independently provide optimal support for chondrogenesis. While Alg-Cs scaffolds have garnered attention, challenges …


Fabrication And Characterization Of Lignin–Pva Hydrogels With Tunable Network Structures, Keturah Bethel Aug 2024

Fabrication And Characterization Of Lignin–Pva Hydrogels With Tunable Network Structures, Keturah Bethel

All Dissertations

The ability to directly tune the crosslinked network structure of hydrogels is crucial for their functional applications in various fields, such as water filtration, protein separation, and tissue engineering. By controlling the crosslink density of the hydrogel, one can directly alter the mesh size – i.e., the end-to-end distance between crosslink junctions – and, subsequently, directly alter the hydrogel performance. This work discusses the fabrication and characterization of soft composites containing the biopolymer, lignin, are discussed. Precisely, physically-crosslinked composite lignin–Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels were fabricated via the freeze-thaw (F/T) pathway, whereby solutions containing specified amounts of PVA and lignin were …


Elucidating The Mechanical And Transport Properties Of Lignin-Based Hydrogel Composites, Nicholas Gregorich May 2023

Elucidating The Mechanical And Transport Properties Of Lignin-Based Hydrogel Composites, Nicholas Gregorich

All Dissertations

The use of lignin in the fabrication of soft composites has become an emerging area of research in polymer science and polymer chemistry. These lignin-based materials present numerous benefits, notably, a reduction in the use of petroleum-based precursor, improved structural benefits to otherwise soft host polymers, as well as the inherent antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of lignin, making it suitable for biomaterials. Herein, we present two chemical reaction pathways of incorporating lignin that was fractionated and cleaned using the Aqueous Lignin Purification with Hot Agents (ALPHA) process into poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel composites for aqueous-based separations. By leveraging the ALPHA …


Complementary Techniques To Study The Behavior Of Water And The Effect On Diffusion And Degradation In Hydrogels, Paige Rockwell Jan 2021

Complementary Techniques To Study The Behavior Of Water And The Effect On Diffusion And Degradation In Hydrogels, Paige Rockwell

Master’s Theses

Hydrogels exhibit biocompatibility in a range of biomedical applications, including drug delivery. This thesis aims to develop complementary techniques to measure the diffusion and degradation behaviors within an injectable, hydrolytically degradable hydrogel, formed via the covalent crosslinking of ethoxylated trimethylolpropane tri-3- mercaptopropionate (ETTMP) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), to determine its suitability as a drug delivery matrix. The characterization of water as either free, within the network openings of the hydrogel, or bound, tightly associated with the polymer chains, was determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The mobility of each type of water within the hydrogels was determined via nuclear …


Effects Of Crosslinking Conditions On Biofouling Of Polymer Substrates With A Hydrogel Layer, Laura Davila Jan 2020

Effects Of Crosslinking Conditions On Biofouling Of Polymer Substrates With A Hydrogel Layer, Laura Davila

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The introduction of a hydrogel coating to a surface has been looked at for different benefits. Certain hydrogels offer antifouling properties that are beneficial to different applications like medical components. Previous attempts (2) (3)have been done to introduce a hydrogel surface to plastic substrates. One of them is to use grafting brushes which works properly but it is not sufficient since the layer is too thin and therefore can be damaged. The second method have a bulkier coating without crosslinking. Opposite to grafting brushes this method has too thick of a layer. Additionally, there is no crosslink therefore the coating …


Bioactive Poly(Beta-Amino Ester) Biomaterials For Treatment Of Infection And Oxidative Stress, Andrew L. Lakes Jan 2016

Bioactive Poly(Beta-Amino Ester) Biomaterials For Treatment Of Infection And Oxidative Stress, Andrew L. Lakes

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Polymers have deep roots as drug delivery tools, and are widely used in clinical to private settings. Currently, however, numerous traditional therapies exist which may be improved through use of polymeric biomaterials. Through our work with infectious and oxidative stress disease prevention and treatment, we aimed to develop application driven, enhanced therapies utilizing new classes of polymers synthesized in-house. Applying biodegradable poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) polymers, covalent-addition of bioactive substrates to these PBAEs avoided certain pitfalls of free-loaded and non-degradable drug delivery systems. Further, through variation of polymer ingredients and conditions, we were able to tune degradation rates, release profiles, cellular …