A study of collagen-hyaluronan interaction through swelling in polyacrylamide gels.

The equilibrium swelling of biopolymer loaded polyacrylamide gels can yield information on polymer-polymer interactions. Using the temperature dependence of excess equilibrium swelling, equations were derived to yield homopolymer as well as heteropolymer interactions. Hyaluronan and collagen (Type I) encapsulated in polyacrylamide gels showed increasing isothermal swelling with increase in the bipolymer concentration.