Abstract

Studies of polystyrene nanoparticles penetration effi ciency in PLGA hydrogel of different hardness

Author(s): Mingze Sun

As a biologically adaptable biomaterial, hydrogels have been widely used in biomedical engineering in recent years. Nanoparticles or drug delivery penetration effi ciency in hydrogel model in vitro has been always the focus of attention in tissue engineering fi eld. Several factors could affect the diffusion process of nanoparticles in the hydrogel, such as the pore size that should be compared to the size of nanoparticles, polymer chain mobility, polymer concentration and crosslink density. Latex microspheres (polystyrene) are easy to produce and surface-modify, have good biocompatibility, and are easy to attach fl uorescence molecules. A variety of products is commercially available and is widely used in the study of nanoparticle penetration. In this work, we changed PLGA hydrogels with different physical properties by changing different preparation conditions (concentration and UV exposure time). The self-customized force sensor is used to characterize the physical properties of hydrogels under different conditions. At the same time, the relationship between physical properties and polystyrene nanoparticles penetration was established by tracking the diffusion effi ciency of fl uorescent nanoparticles in the hydrogel.