Hydrophilic–hydrophobic hydrogels for cartilage replacement

Implant size and mechanical properties influence the failure of the adhesive bond between cartilage implants and native tissue in a finite element analysis

“…The implanted cartilage replacements (ICRs) under development include both cell-seeded tissue-engineered constructs as well as cellfree implants made of materials that include hydrogels (Ahmed and Hincke, 2010;Coutts et al, 2001;Maher et al, 2007;Thomas et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2007), polymers (Erggelet et al, 2009) and metal (Manda et al, 2011) and possess a wide range of material properties. ICRs can fill either full-thickness or partial-thickness defects.…”

The recent progress of tribological biomaterials

“…Except the incorporation of hydrophilic polymers such as polyacrylamide and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) into PVA by blending, a hydrophilic-hydrophobic copolymer hydrogel of PVA and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol)(EVAL) has also been studied. It is evidenced that the mechanical properties enhanced with unsacrificed tribological properties due to the water adsorption, fluid flow and water lubrication provided by hydrophilic segment and high mechanical strength, wear and shear resistance provided by hydrophobic segment (Fig.11) [186]. Besides, the poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) reinforced PVA hydrogel has lower friction coefficient under synovial fluid lubrication than serum lubrication due to the high protein level of serum which induces high shear strength [187].…”

“…Following paragraph will show partial research achievements on tribology of hydrogels which are used in biomedicine. Fig.11 (a) Molded compression cylinders of lyogels and hydrogels, (b) compressive modulus of various hydrogels, (c) friction coefficient of various hydrogels [186].…”

States of water, surface and rheological characterisation of a new biohydrogel as articular cartilage substitute

“…PVA hydrogels have been generally produced by a number of methods including irradiation crosslinking, freezethaw cycles, solvent precipitation, and injection molding followed by solvent exchange. [11][12][13][14][15] None of them can guarantee a perfect control and reproducibility of the procedure. Physically hydrogels can rapidly undergo disruption.…”