Fabrication and Characterization of Tunable Polysaccharide Hydrogel Blends for Neural Repair

Abstract

Hydrogels are an important class of biomaterials that have the potential to be used as three-dimensional tissue engineering scaffolds for regenerative medicine. This is especially true in the central nervous system, where neurons do not have the ability to regenerate due to the prohibitory local environment following injury. Hydrogels can fill an injury site, replacing the growth-prohibiting environment with a more growth-permissive one. In this study, dextran and chitosan were incorporated into a methylcellulose and agarose hydrogel blend. This created several thermally sensitive polysaccharide hydrogel blends that had tunable mechanical and surface charge properties. Cortical neurons were cultured on the hydrogels to determine the blend that had the greatest neuron compatibility. Our results show that softer, more positively charged polysaccharide hydrogel blends allow for greater neuron attachment and neurite extension, showing their promise as CNS regeneration scaffolds. © 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Comments

National Institutes of Health, Grant NS062392

Keywords and Phrases

Chitosan; Hydrogel; Mechanical properties; Nerve; Thermally responsive material

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1742-7061

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Elsevier; Acta Materialia, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2011

PubMed ID

21130187

Link to Full Text

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