Mechanical properties of alginate hydrogels manufactured using external gelation

Kaklamani, Georgia; Cheneler, David; Grover, Liam M.; Adams, Michael J. and Bowen, James (2014). Mechanical properties of alginate hydrogels manufactured using external gelation. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 36 pp. 135–142.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2014.04.013

Abstract

Alginate hydrogels are commonly used in biomedical applications such as scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery, and as a medium for cell immobilization. Multivalent cations are often employed to create physical crosslinks between carboxyl and hydroxyl moieties on neighbouring polysaccharide chains, creating hydrogels with a range of mechanical properties. This work describes the manufacture and characterisation of sodium alginate hydrogels using the divalent cations Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺ and Sr²⁺ to promote gelation via non-covalent crosslinks. The gelation time and Young’s modulus are characterised as a function of cation and alginate concentrations. The implications of this work towards the use of environmental elasticity to control stem cell differentiation are discussed.

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