NOVEL METHACRYLATED GELLAN GUM HYDROGELS WITH TUNABLE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

Gellan Gum (GG) has been recently proposed for tissue engineering applications. GG hydrogels are produced by physical crosslinking methods induced by temperature variation or by the presence of divalent cations. However, physical crosslinking methods may yield hydrogels that become weaker in physiological conditions due to the exchange of divalent by monovalent cations. This work presents a new class of methacrylated gellan gum hydrogels (MeGG) with highly tunable properties, crosslinkable by both physical and chemical mechanisms. We herein demonstrate that the chemical incorporation of methacrylate groups yields hydrogels with mechanical properties that can be easily tuned by varying the parameters of the crosslinking mechanisms used.