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button  Structure-Property Relationships in Dental Polymers and Composites
     button  Nanocomposite Dental Materials
  button  Structure-Property Relationships of Hydrogels for Dental and Craniofacial Applications
  button  The Effect of an Organogelator on Bioactive Dental Composites
  button   High-throughput and combinatorial methods for measuring the mechanical properties of dental materials
button  Combinatorial Methods for Rapid Screening of Biomaterials
  button  High-throughput Method for Determining Young’s Modulus of Polymer Blends
  button  Inflammatory Cytokine Quantification of Cell-SCK Interactions via RT-PCR
  button  Peptide Derivatized SCK Nanoparticles
  button  Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  button  Gradient Library Screening of Cell-Material Interactions
  button  Surface Energy Gradients for Characterizing Cell-Material Interactions
  button  High-throughput Method for Characterizing Cell Response to Polymer Crystallinity
  button   Cellular Response to Bis-GMA/TEGDMA Vinyl Conversion Gradients
button  Metrologies for Tissue Scaffolds
  button  Focal Adhesions of Osteoblasts on Poly(d,l-lactide)/Poly(vinyl alcohol) Blends by Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy
  button   2D -->3D Cell / Scaffold Interactions
  button  Development of a Reference Scaffold
  button   In Vitro Cartilage Development
  button   Gene Expression Profiles of Cells in Response to Tyrosine Polycarbonate Blends
  button Broadband Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) Microscopic Imaging
  button Collinear Optical Coherence and Confocal Fluorescence Microscopies
 

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Structure-Property Relationships of Hydrogels for Dental and Craniofacial Applications

 

Introduction

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A key area in the repair and regeneration of dental and craniofacial tissues is optimizing the polymeric scaffold-tissue response. This study is designed to better understand the relationships between polymer matrix structure/properties and cell response. The current study includes the preparation/characterization of a series of polyethylene glycol dimethacrylates (PEGDM) and PEG-urethane dimethacrylates (PEGUDM), their conversions in aqueous solution to hydrogels by photopolymerization, and a preliminary assessment of the correlation of mechanical and cell response to hydrogel structural variations. The gel structures are probed using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and the gel shear moduli are determined using uniaxial compression tests. Bovine chondrocytes, seeded in PEGDM and PEGUDM hydrogels are used as preliminary assessment for determining the biocompatibility of these materials.
 

Experimental Approach

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synthesis platforms for poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate derivatives
  • Develop synthesis platforms for poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate derivatives
  • Establishing the prepolymer’s purity and molecular mass distribution by 1H NMR and MALDI-TOF MS
  • Assess the hydrogels biocompatibility using a live-dead stain
  • Characterization of hydrogel mesostructures using small angle neutron scattering
  • Determine the mechanical properties of the hydrogel

    • Results
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    Facile synthesis and detailed characterization of PEGDMs and PEGUDMs are presented. 1H NMR and MALDI-TOF MS show that a near quantitative conversion can be achieved by the reaction of PEG with methacrylic anhydride and relatively high reaction conversions, between 82 % and 93 %, can be obtained for the synthesis of PEGUDM. The structure of PEGDM hydrogels has been determined using small angle neutron scattering (SANS). Uniaxial compression tests showed varied mechanical response but the cells were completely viable in PEGDM hydrogels after two weeks. Hydrogels prepared from these dimethacrylates can provide model scaffolds for understanding how their material properties influence the cell response.
    MALDI  Sans  compression test
     

    Future Activities
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  • Understand the transport properties of hydrogel using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
  • Prepare of gradient hydrogels to elucidate biological signaling parameters
  • PEGDM hydrogels have the potential to be used as reference materials
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    Publications
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  • Lin-Gibson, S. et al. Biomacromolecules, May 2004.
  • Lin-Gibson, S. et al. to be submitted to Macromolecules.
    ADAF  NIDCR
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    Contributors

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    Sheng Lin-Gibson*, Joseph M. Antonucci, Ronald L. Jones (NIST), Sidi Bencherif, Newell R. Washburn, Ferenc Horkey (NIH)
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    		 
    		 
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    Biomaterials Group
    Polymers Division
    Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
     
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