Gellan gum and polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate double network hydrogels with improved mechanical properties

Combining different polymeric systems can be a useful tool to create new networks with different characteristics with respect to the starting materials. In this work, hydrogels composed of gellan gum (GG) and polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate (PEG-DMA) were realized to overcome the fragility problems of physical gels of GG, which limit their biological application as scaffold for tissue engineering. The two polymeric systems were combined using different synthetic approaches, with particular attention to the double network strategy (DN). The influence of several parameters on the mechanical properties, such as the time of diffusion and the molecular weight of PEG-DMA, were evaluated by rheological studies and compressive texture analyses. The hydrogels were also investigated for their ability to swell and release model molecules with different sterical hindrances, such as vitamin B12 and myoglobin. Finally, to estimate the biological safety of the hydrogels, their effect on mitochondrial function of human fibroblasts was investigated.