Biodegradation of high-toughness double network hydrogels as potential materials for artificial cartilage

✍ Scribed by Chinatsu Azuma; Kazunori Yasuda; Yoshie Tanabe; Hiroko Taniguro; Fuminori Kanaya; Atsushi Nakayama; Yong Mei Chen; Jian Ping Gong; Yoshihito Osada

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 229 KB
• Volume: 81A
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1549-3296
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.31043

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This study evaluated biodegradation properties of four novel high‐toughness double network (DN) hydrogels as potential materials for artificial cartilage. Concerning each DN gel material, a total of 12 specimens were prepared, and 6 of the 12 specimens were examined to determine the mechanical properties without any treatments. The remaining 6 specimens were implanted into the subcutaneous tissue, using 6 mature female rabbits. At 6 weeks after implantation, the mechanical properties and the water content of the implanted specimens were measured. In the poly(2‐acrylamide‐2‐methyl‐propane sulfonic acid)/poly(N,N′‐dimethyl acrylamide) DN gel, the ultimate stress and the tangent modulus were significantly increased from 3.10 and 0.20 MPa, respectively, to 5.40 and 0.37 MPa, respectively, with a significant reduction of the water content after implantation (94 to 91%). In the poly(2‐acrylamide‐2‐methyl‐propane sulfonic acid)/polyacrylamide DN gel and the cellulose/poly(dimethyl acrylamide) DN gel, the stress (11.4 and 1.90 MPa, respectively) and the modulus (0.30 and 1.70 MPa, respectively) or the water content rarely changed after implantation (90 and 85%, respectively). In the bacterial cellulose/gelatin DN gel, the ultimate stress was dramatically reduced from 4.30 to 1.98 MPa with a significant increase of the water content after implantation (78 to 86%). This study implied that these DN gels except for the cellulose/gelatin DN gel are potential materials that may meet the requirements of artificial cartilage. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2007