Warren, JP orcid.org/0000-0002-0039-5730, Miles, DE orcid.org/0000-0003-0898-4983, Kapur, N orcid.org/0000-0003-1041-8390 et al. (2 more authors) (2021) Hydrodynamic Mixing Tunes the Stiffness of Proteoglycan‐Mimicking Physical Hydrogels. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 10 (11). 2001998. ISSN 2192-2640
Abstract
Self‐assembling hydrogels are promising materials for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. However, designing hydrogels that replicate the 3–4 order of magnitude variation in soft tissue mechanics remains a major challenge. Here hybrid hydrogels are investigated formed from short self‐assembling β‐fibril peptides, and the glycosaminoglycan chondroitin sulfate (CS), chosen to replicate physical aspects of proteoglycans, specifically natural aggrecan, which provides structural mechanics to soft tissues. Varying the peptide:CS compositional ratio (1:2, 1:10, or 1:20) can tune the mechanics of the gel by one to two orders of magnitude. In addition, it is demonstrated that at any fixed composition, the gel shear modulus can be tuned over approximately two orders of magnitude through varying the initial vortex mixing time. This tuneability arises due to changes in the mesoscale structure of the gel network (fibril width, length, and connectivity), giving rise to both shear‐thickening and shear‐thinning behavior. The resulting hydrogels range in shear elastic moduli from 0.14 to 220 kPa, mimicking the mechanical variability in a range of soft tissues. The high degree of discrete tuneability of composition and mechanics in these hydrogels makes them particularly promising for matching the chemical and mechanical requirements of different applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Keywords: | biomimetic materials; biopolymer networks; gel mechanics; network connectivity; self‐assembling peptides; shear rheology |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemistry (Leeds) > Physical Chemistry (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biomedical Sciences (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/K020757/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 May 2021 09:09 |
Last Modified: | 09 Jan 2025 09:34 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/adhm.202001998 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:173867 |