Over the past decade, silk sericin has emerged as a promising material for biomedical applications, especially in tissue engineering, where fine-tuning the physicochemical properties is crucial. However, previous studies, including those on the methacrylation of sericin (yielding SS-MA), showed limited tunability. Here, we developed a photo-cross-linkable sericin-based material modified with 2-aminoethyl methacrylate (AEMA) using two synthesis routes: sequential modification of SS-MA with AEMA (SS-MA-AEMA) and an efficient one-pot synthesis (SS-AEMA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioengineering seeks to replicate biological tissues exploiting scaffolds often based on polymeric biomaterials. Digital light processing (DLP) has emerged as a potent technique to fabricate tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds. However, the scarcity of suitable biomaterials with desired physico-chemical properties along with processing capabilities limits DLP's potential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost commercial dressings with moderate to high exudate uptake capacities are mechanically weaker and/or require a secondary dressing. The current research article focuses on the development of hydrogel-based wound dressings combining mechanical strength with high exudate absorption capacities using acrylate-endcapped urethane-based precursors (AUPs). AUPs with varying poly(ethylene glycol) backbone molar masses (10 and 20 kg mol ) and endcap chemistries are successfully synthesized in toluene, subsequently processed into UV-cured hydrogel sheets and are benchmarked against several commercial wound dressings (Hydrosorb, Kaltostat, and Mepilex Ag).
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