Injectable in situ crosslinkable hyaluronan-polyvinyl phosphonic acid hydrogels for bone engineering

Abstract

A novel injectable hydrogel that was synthesized by in situ crosslinking of hyaluronan and polyvinyl phos- phonic acid was proposed in this study. Fourier trans- form infrared spectrum (FT-IR) analysis, scanning electron microscope (SEM), pH measurement, and biodegradation test were used to confirm its charac- teristics. The results permitted to prove successful crosslinking, observe the inner morphology of hy- drogel and pore sizes distribution, and determine the decomposition of hydrogel components during incu- bation time. Result of pH measurement showed that the pH scale of hydrogel decreased when volume of PVPA increased. As a consequence, it affected the cytotoxicity value, cell proliferation, and cell growth behaviors of each hydrogel. Optical microscope ob- servation showed that chondroblasts cell proliferated well on HA-PVPA hydrogel. Therefore, these results suggest that the new injectable hydrogel is appropri- ate for bone/cartilage regeneration applications.