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Fabrication of in Situ Forming Hydrogels Composed of Acellular Cartilage Matrix with Improved Mechanical Properties for Recovery of Local Damages in Articular Cartilage

Shojarazavi, Nastaran | 2019

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 51578 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Mashayekhan, Shohreh; Hassanzadeh, Zabihollah
  7. Abstract:
  8. Since cartilage has limited self-regeneration, in-situ forming hydrogels can act as an ideal scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering to fill the defect gap due to their ability to homogeneously encapsulate the desired cells, efficient mass transfer and minimally invasive characteristics. In this project, an injectable hydrogel with improved structure by adding silk fibroin (SF) nanofibers and better biochemical properties by employing the cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) was fabricated. The in-situ forming hydrogel is consisted of different concentrations of ionic crosslinked alginate incorporated with different concentrations of SF nanofibers and 1% w/v enzymatically crosslinked phenolized cartilage ECM, resulting in an interconnected polymer network (IPN). The results show that increasing the alginate concentration caused an increase in the compressive Young’s modulus and gelation time of the samples. However, increasing the SF nanofiber concentration could not necessarily increase the mechanical stiffness because it may act as a barrier for crosslinkers diffusion within the hydrogel bulk. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that SF nanofibers were homogeneously dispersed in the hydrogel, mimicking the natural cartilage environment. It can be concluded from the obtained results that the hydrogel with alginate and SF nanofiber with concentrations of 1.651% w/v and 2.662% w/v, respectively, has the optimum compressive Young’s modulus and gelation time. Water uptake, degradation, and MTT assay were performed on the optimum hydrogel and results show that this hydrogel has the potential to be applied as an injectable hydrogel in articular cartilage defects
  9. Keywords:
  10. In-Situ Forming Hydrogel ; Interpenetrating Polymer Network ; Extracellular Matrix ; Cartilage Tissue Engineering ; Nanofiber ; Mechanical Properties ; Silk Fibroin

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