TY - GEN
T1 - Triblock PLLA-PEO-PLLA hydrogels
T2 - Structure and mechanical properties
AU - Agrawal, Sarvesh K.
AU - Sardhina, Heidi A.
AU - Aamer, Khaled A.
AU - Sanabria-DeLong, Naomi
AU - Bhatia, Surita R.
AU - Tew, Gregory N.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Triblock copolymers made from poly(L-lactide)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(L-lactide) have attracted attention recently because of their ability to form elastic gels, which have potential applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. We have perfomed rheology studies on several of mese gels, formed with varying lengths of the hydrophobic (PLLA) blocks. The elastic moduli of these gels were found to be greater than 10,000 Pa, matching well with the moduli measured for several native human tissues. The strength of the gels is seen to be strongly dependent on the PLLA block length, thus offering a mechanism to control the mechanical properties as desired for particular applications. The gel strength is dependent upon the network structure, which in turn governs the degradation behavior of the gels and hence the release rate of bioactive molecules. Hence we establish the usefulness of these materials for producing tailor-made hydrogels, suitable for specific biomedical applications.
AB - Triblock copolymers made from poly(L-lactide)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(L-lactide) have attracted attention recently because of their ability to form elastic gels, which have potential applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. We have perfomed rheology studies on several of mese gels, formed with varying lengths of the hydrophobic (PLLA) blocks. The elastic moduli of these gels were found to be greater than 10,000 Pa, matching well with the moduli measured for several native human tissues. The strength of the gels is seen to be strongly dependent on the PLLA block length, thus offering a mechanism to control the mechanical properties as desired for particular applications. The gel strength is dependent upon the network structure, which in turn governs the degradation behavior of the gels and hence the release rate of bioactive molecules. Hence we establish the usefulness of these materials for producing tailor-made hydrogels, suitable for specific biomedical applications.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/34248373409
U2 - 10.1021/bk-2006-0924.ch007
DO - 10.1021/bk-2006-0924.ch007
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:34248373409
SN - 0841239185
SN - 9780841239180
T3 - ACS Symposium Series
SP - 102
EP - 119
BT - Polymeric Drug Delivery II Polymeric Matrices and Drug Particle Engineering
PB - American Chemical Society
ER -