Fabrication of Mechanically Enhanced, Suturable, Fibrous Hydrogel Membranes

Abstract

Poly(vinyl-alcohol) hydrogels have already been successfully utilised as drug carrier systems and tissue engineering scaffolds. However, lacking mechanical strength and suturability hinders any prospects for clinical and surgical applications. The objective of this work was to fabricate mechanically robust PVA membranes, which could also withstand surgical manipulation and suturing. Electrospun membranes and control hydrogels were produced with 61 kDa PVA. Using a high-speed rotating cylindrical collector, we achieved fibre alignment (fibre diameter: 300 ± 50 nm). Subsequently, we created multilayered samples with different orientations to achieve multidirectional reinforcement. Finally, utilising glutaraldehyde as a cross-linker, we created insoluble fibrous-hydrogel membranes. Mechanical studies were performed, confirming a fourfold increase in the specific loading capacities (from 0.21 to 0.84 Nm2/g) in the case of the monolayer samples. The multilayered membranes exhibited increased resistance from both horizontal and vertical directions, which varies according to the specific arrangement. Finally, the cross-linked fibrous hydrogel samples not only exhibited specific loading capacities significantly higher than their counterpart bulk hydrogels but successfully withstood suturing. Although cross-linking optimisation and animal experiments are required, these membranes have great prospects as alternatives to current surgical meshes, while the methodology could also be applied in other systems as well.

PEDOT-Coated PLA Fibers Electrospun from Solutions Incorporating Fe(III)Tosylate in Different Solvents by Vapor-Phase Polymerization for Neural Regeneration

“…Similar results were found for all the other scaffolds (images not depicted) and can also be found in the literature. Voniatis et al [42] observed an increase in the degree of alignment of poly(vinyl alcohol) fibers produced by electrospinning, with an increase in the rotation speed of a cylindrical collector up to 6000 rpm. From the angular distribution of the fibers in the scaffolds produced in this work at the collector rotation speed of 3500 rpm, we estimated the percentage of fibers oriented within a range of 60 degrees.…”