Photocrosslinkable Gelatin Hydrogel for Epidermal Tissue Engineering

By Xin Zhao, Qi Lang, L. Yildirimer, Z. Lin, W. Cui, N. Annabi, Kee Woei Ng, Mehmet Remzi Dokmeci, Amir M. Ghaemmaghami, Ali Khademhosseini. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2015

735 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Natural hydrogels are promising scaffolds to engineer epidermis. Currently, natural hydrogels used to support epidermal regeneration are mainly collagen‐ or gelatin‐based, which mimic the natural dermal extracellular matrix but often suffer from insufficient and uncontrollable mechanical and degradation properties. In this study, a photocrosslinkable gelatin (i.e., gelatin methacrylamide (GelMA)) with tunable mechanical, degradation, and biological properties is used to engineer the epidermis for skin tissue engineering applications. The results reveal that the mechanical and degradation properties of the developed hydrogels can be readily modified by varying the hydrogel concentration, with elastic and compressive moduli tuned from a few kPa to a few hundred kPa, and the degradation times varied from a few days to several months. Additionally, hydrogels of all concentrations displayed excellent cell viability (>90%) with increasing cell adhesion and proliferation corresponding to increases in hydrogel concentrations. Furthermore, the hydrogels are found to support keratinocyte growth, differentiation, and stratification into a reconstructed multilayered epidermis with adequate barrier functions. The robust and tunable properties of GelMA hydrogels suggest that the keratinocyte laden hydrogels can be used as epidermal substitutes, wound dressings, or substrates to construct various in vitro skin models.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Biomedical Engineering, Rehabilitation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/412a3b857d7fa66f84eab3ec7039602fb75f6865

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomaterials

1. Ali Khademhosseini
2. N. Annabi
3. K. Yue
4. Ali Tamayol
5. M. M. Álvarez
6. G. Santiago

In Biomedical Engineering

1. N. Annabi
2. Ali Tamayol
3. K. Yue
4. M. M. Álvarez
5. G. Santiago
6. N. Darling
7. Ali Khademhosseini
8. R. Dimatteo

Citations in the corpus

• In situ Forming Injectable Hydrogels for Drug Delivery and Wound Repair (2018, positive): “has demonstrated the efficacy of methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) basedmaterials towards epidermal reconstruction [108,109].”
• Drug Delivery Systems and Materials for Wound Healing Applications (2018, positive): “Gelatin-based hydrogels adhere to surrounding tissues and it has been demonstrated to support formation of epidermis (Figure 4a,b) [115].”
• Hydrogels: Properties and Applications in Biomedicine (2022, background): “The alteration can be controlled easily by switching the light on and off, in a wavelength-specific manner, and regulating times of light stimulation [190,191].”
• Synthesis, properties, and biomedical applications of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels (2015, background): “[104] Zhao X, Lang Q, Yildirimer L, Lin ZY, Cui W, Annabi N, et al.”