Tailoring Gellan Gum Spongy-Like Hydrogels' Microstructure by Controlling Freezing Parameters.

ABSTRACT: Gellan gum (GG) spongy-like hydrogels have been explored for different tissue engineering (TE) applications owing to their highly attractive hydrogel-like features, and improved mechanical resilience and cell performance. Although the whole process for the preparation of these materials is well-defined, we hypothesized that variations occurring during the freezing step lead to batch-to-batch discrepancies. Aiming to address this issue, two freezing devices were tested, to prepare GG spongy-like hydrogels in a more reproducible way. The cooling and freezing rates, the nucleation time and temperature, and the end freezing time were determined at different freezing temperatures (-20, -80, and -210 °C). The efficacy of the devices was assessed by analyzing the physicochemical, mechanical, and

SUBMITTER: Moreira HR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7077413 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature