TY - JOUR

T1 - Silica–gelatin hybrids for tissue regeneration

T2 - inter-relationships between the process variables

AU - Mahony, Oliver

AU - Yue, Sheng

AU - Turdean-ionescu, Claudia

AU - Hanna, John V.

AU - Smith, Mark E.

AU - Lee, Peter D.

AU - Jones, Julian R.

N1 - The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

PY - 2014/2

Y1 - 2014/2

N2 - Owing to their diverse range of highly tailorable material properties, inorganic/organic hybrids have the potential to meet the needs of biodegradable porous scaffolds across a range of tissue engineering applications. One such hybrid platform, the silica–gelatin sol–gel system, was examined and developed in this study. These hybrid scaffolds exhibit covalently linked interpenetrating networks of organic and inorganic components, which allows for independent control over their mechanical and degradation properties. A combination of the sol–gel foaming process and freeze drying was used to create an interconnected pore network. The synthesis and processing of the scaffolds has many variables that affect their structure and properties. The focus of this study was to develop a matrix tool that shows the inter-relationship between process variables by correlating the key hybrid material properties with the synthesis parameters that govern them. This was achieved by investigating the effect of the organic (gelatin) molecular weight and collating previously reported data. Control of molecular weight of the polymer is as an avenue that allows the modification of hybrid material properties without changing the surface chemistry of the material, which is a factor that governs the cell and tissue interaction with the scaffold. This presents a significant step forward in understanding the complete potential of the silica–gelatin hybrid system as a medical device.

AB - Owing to their diverse range of highly tailorable material properties, inorganic/organic hybrids have the potential to meet the needs of biodegradable porous scaffolds across a range of tissue engineering applications. One such hybrid platform, the silica–gelatin sol–gel system, was examined and developed in this study. These hybrid scaffolds exhibit covalently linked interpenetrating networks of organic and inorganic components, which allows for independent control over their mechanical and degradation properties. A combination of the sol–gel foaming process and freeze drying was used to create an interconnected pore network. The synthesis and processing of the scaffolds has many variables that affect their structure and properties. The focus of this study was to develop a matrix tool that shows the inter-relationship between process variables by correlating the key hybrid material properties with the synthesis parameters that govern them. This was achieved by investigating the effect of the organic (gelatin) molecular weight and collating previously reported data. Control of molecular weight of the polymer is as an avenue that allows the modification of hybrid material properties without changing the surface chemistry of the material, which is a factor that governs the cell and tissue interaction with the scaffold. This presents a significant step forward in understanding the complete potential of the silica–gelatin hybrid system as a medical device.

KW - Gelatin

KW - GPTMS

KW - Hybrid

KW - Scaffold

KW - Sol-gel

KW - Foaming

KW - Covalent coupling

U2 - 10.1007/s10971-013-3214-3

DO - 10.1007/s10971-013-3214-3

M3 - Journal article

VL - 69

SP - 288

EP - 298

JO - Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology

JF - Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology

SN - 0928-0707

IS - 2

ER -