Mahshad Mohseni
Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, Iran
Title: Supramolecular gelatin nano-composites with enhanced sol-gel transition temperature
Biography
Biography: Mahshad Mohseni
Abstract
Generally nature of the crosslinks in the networks of hydrogels such as gelatin, are classified to covalent and non-covalent. Hydrogen bonding is the most useful interactions in self-assembly. UPy (where UPy is a quadruple H-bonding motif) grafted Zn-substituted HAp was synthesized then the effects of Zn substitution on structural properties of the HAp were investigated specifically. The aim of this study was to develop novel supramolecular gelatin-based composites including modified gelatin with UPy motifs (GelUPy) and the combination of GelUPy with UPy grafted Zn-doped HAp particles to become acquainted in hard tissue regeneration Briefly GelUPy was synthesized in two steps. First, pyrimidinone was reacted with hexadiisocyanate (UPy precursor). Second, Gelatin and the UPy precursor were reacted to yield modified gelatin and also ZnHApUPy nanoparticles were synthesized for the same. In FTIR spectrum of GelUPy, a peak was appeared at 1659cm-1 correlated with urea-C=O vibrations. Also, a characteristic peak was seen for the =C-H stretching vibration of the UPy motif at 3053cm-1. Mechanical properties of the composites were investigated on the swollen disks. The acquired stress-strain curves showed an increasing stiffness for the swollen disks containing GelUPy, and ZnHApUPy showed the maximum value of compressive modulus of about 841 KPa, while the minimum amount was registered for those which containing GelUPy and ZnHAp (about 564 KPa). The sol-gel transition temperature (Tgel) changes of the Gelupy and the supramolecular disks were investigated through rheological measurements. Tgel at about 62áµ’C was recorded for GelUPy indicating a significant increase compared to the native gelatin. Therefore, GelUPy and its composites with ZnHApUPy hold promise as tissue engineering materials. We showed that GelUPy and UPy grafted Zn- HAp could be synthesized and combined to yield supramolecular nano-composites which can be considered as useful materials for application as bone tissue engineering scaffolds.