J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater
February 2012
Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels have desirable characteristics for use as artificial cartilage, such as biocompatibility, high water content, and surface lubricity. However, PVA hydrogels are not strong enough to withstand the demanding load-bearing environment in human joints. Thermal annealing can greatly improve compressive strength, but it also causes substantial loss in water content and lubricity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymer-based carriers are commonly used to deliver drugs from stents. However, adverse responses to polymer coatings have raised serious concerns. This research is focused on delivering drugs from stents without using polymers or any carriers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) has been advanced as a biomaterial for the fabrication of medical devices to be used as synthetic articular cartilage because of its viscoelastic nature, high water content, and biocompatibility. Key material requirements for such devices are high creep resistance to prevent mechanical instability in the joint and high water content to maintain a lubricious surface to minimize wear and damage of the cartilage counterface during articulation. The creep resistance of PVA hydrogels can be increased by high temperature annealing; however this process also collapses the pores, reducing the water content and consequently reducing the lubricity of the hydrogel surface [Bodugoz-Senturk H, Choi J, Oral E, Kung JH, Macias CE, Braithwaite G, et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels are candidate biomaterials for cartilage resurfacing or interpositional arthroplasty devices requiring high-creep resistance and high water content to maintain lubricity. Annealing of PVA improves creep resistance but also reduces the water content. We hypothesized that maintaining poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) within PVA during annealing would prevent the collapse of the pores and thus would result in high equilibrium water content (EWC).
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