STUDY ON THE CROSSLINK-INDUCED RADICAL INTERCOUPLING BETWEEN ATELOCOLLAGEN AND IN SITU-GENERATED (CO)POLYMERS
STELIAN S. MAIER*, VASILICA MAIER, MELINDA PRUNEANU ”GH. ASACHI” TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF IAŞI, DEPARTMENT OF LEATHER CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY, P.O. IAŞI 10, POBOX 2070, 700050 IAŞI, ROMANIA *CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: SMAIER@CH.TUIAŞI.RO
The paper presents a study on the obtaining of collagen-based interpenetrated and intercoupled networks, involving short chains of (co-)polymers as linking bridges, in order to generate loose hydrogels with a definite rheological personality, enabling convenient handling for cell culture techniques. The steps involved are: (i) obtaining tactoidal atelocollagen entities, by transglutaminase assisted cross-linking, (ii) atelocollagen conjugation with glycidil methacrylate (GMA), in order to attach ethylenically unsaturated functions and (iii) involving these functions in radical (co-)polymerization with GMA or other biotolerable monomers. The (co-)polymerization process is induced at low temperature (below 6 °C), using a ternary initiator mixture including H2O2, ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA). The optimal composition of the mixture, which assure a minimal gelation time (640 min) and a maximal hydrogel consistency (0.61 Pa•s), comprises 0.67 H2O2, 0.22 AA, 0.11 UA expressed as mass fractions.
