Novel sol–gel hybrid materials that put bounce in bioactive glass, can self-heal and can be directly 3D printed.

No abstract

Hybrid organic-inorganic solids represent an important class of engineering materials, usually prepared by sol-gel processes by cross-reaction between organic and inorganic precursors. The choice of the two components and control of the reaction conditions (especially pH value) allow the synthesis of hybrid materials with novel properties and functionalities. 3-Glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) is one of the most commonly used organic silanes for hybrid-material fabrication. Herein, the reactivity of GPTMS in water at different pH values (pH 2-11) was deeply investigated for the first time by solution-state multinuclear NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric analysis. The extent of the different and competing reactions that take place as a function of the pH value was elucidated. The NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric data clearly indicate that the pH value determines the kinetics of epoxide hydrolysis versus silicon condensation. Under slighly acidic conditions, the epoxy-ring hydrolysis is kinetically more favourable than the formation of the silica network. In contrast, under basic conditions, silicon condensation is the main reaction that takes place. Full characterisation of the formed intermediates was carried out by using NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric analysis. These results indicate that strict control of the pH values allows tuning of the reactivity of the organic and inorganic moities, thus laying the foundations for the design and synthesis of sol-gel hybrid biomaterials with tuneable properties.

The ability to replicate in vitro the native extracellular matrix (ECM) features and to control the three-dimensional (3D) cell organization plays a fundamental role in obtaining functional engineered bioconstructs. In tissue engineering (TE) applications, hydrogels have been successfully implied as biomatrices for 3D cell embedding, exhibiting high similarities to the natural ECM and holding easily tunable mechanical properties. In the present study, we characterized a promising photocrosslinking process to generate cell-laden methacrylate gelatin (GelMA) hydrogels in the presence of VA-086 photoinitiator using a ultraviolet LED source. We investigated the influence of prepolymer concentration and light irradiance on mechanical and biomimetic properties of resulting hydrogels. In details, the increasing of gelatin concentration resulted in enhanced rheological properties and shorter polymerization time. We then defined and validated a reliable photopolymerization protocol for cell embedding (1.5% VA-086, LED 2 mW/cm2) within GelMA hydrogels, which demonstrated to support bone marrow stromal cells viability when cultured up to 7 days. Moreover, we showed how different mechanical properties, derived from different crosslinking parameters, strongly influence cell behavior. In conclusion, this protocol can be considered a versatile tool to obtain biocompatible cell-laden hydrogels with properties easily adaptable for different TE applications.