In Situ Photo-crosslinkable Hyaluronic Acid/Gelatin Hydrogel for Local Nitric Oxide Delivery.

An increasing number of studies have shown that the local release of nitric oxide (NO) from hydrogels stimulates tissue regeneration by modulating cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and inflammation. The potential biomedical uses of NO-releasing hydrogels can be expanded by enabling their application in a fluid state, followed by controlled gelation triggered by an external factor. In this study, we engineered a hydrogel composed of methacrylated hyaluronic acid (HAGMA) and thiolated gelatin (GELSH) with the capacity for in situ photo-cross-linking, coupled with localized NO release.

Antimicrobial efficacy of a nitric oxide-releasing ampicillin conjugate catheter lock solution on clinically-isolated antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Antibiotic lock therapy (ALT) is standard clinical practice for treating bacteremia linked with catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs). However, this strategy frequently fails against multi-drug-resistant bacteria in clinical settings. In this study, a novel approach to utilize a nitric oxide (NO) donor -nitroso--acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP)-conjugated to ampicillin antibiotic (namely SNAPicillin) as a catheter lock solution is presented.

A Multidisciplinary Experiment to Characterize Antifouling Biocompatible Interfaces via Quantification of Surface Protein Adsorption.

Novel biomaterial development is a rapidly growing field that is crucial because biomaterial fouling, due to rapid and irreversible protein adsorption, leads to cellular responses and potentially detrimental consequences such as surface thrombosis, biofilm formation, or inflammation. Therefore, biomaterial technology's fundamentals, like material biocompatibility, are critical in undergraduate education. Exposing undergraduate students to biomaterials and biomedical engineering through interdisciplinary experiments allows them to integrate knowledge from different fields to analyze multidisciplinary results.