Heat conduction simulation of chondrocyte-embedded agarose gels suggests negligible impact of viscoelastic dissipation on temperature change.

Agarose is commonly used for 3D cell culture and to mimic the stiffness of the pericellular matrix of articular chondrocytes. Although it is known that both temperature and mechanical stimulation affect the metabolism of chondrocytes, little is known about the thermal properties of agarose hydrogels. Thermal properties of agarose are needed to analyze potential heat production by chondrocytes induced by various experimental stimuli (carbon source, cyclical compression, etc). Utilizing ASTM C177, a custom-built thermal conductivity measuring device was constructed and used to calculate the thermal conductivity of 4.5 % low gelling temperature agarose hydrogels. Additionally, Differential Scanning Calorimetry was used to calculate the specific heat capacity of the agarose hydrogels. Testing of chondrocyte-embedded agarose hydrogels commonly occurs in Phosphate-Buffered Saline (PBS), and thermal analysis requires the free convection coefficient of PBS. This was calculated using a 2D heat conduction simulation within MATLAB in tandem with experimental data collected for known boundary and initial conditions. The specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity of 4.5 % agarose hydrogels was calculated to be 2.85 J/g°C and 0.121 W/mK, respectively. The free convection coefficient of PBS was calculated to be 1000.1 W/m2K. The values of specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity for agarose are similar to the reported values for articular cartilage, which are 3.20 J/g°C and 0.21 W/mK (Moghadam, et al. 2014). These data show that cyclical loading of hydrogel samples with these thermal properties will result in negligible temperature increases. This suggests that in addition to 4.5 % agarose hydrogels mimicking the physiological stiffness of the cartilage PCM, they can also mimic the thermal properties of articular cartilage for in vitro studies.

Design and characterization of a porous pouch to prevent peritoneal adhesions during in vivo vascular graft maturation.

Vein grafts for coronary artery bypass are not available in more than 30% of patients due to prior use or systemic vascular diseases. Tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) have shown promise, but intimal hyperplasia and graft thrombosis are still concerns when grafted in small-diameter arteries. In this study, we utilized the peritoneal cavity as an "in vivo" bioreactor to recruit autologous cells to electrospun conduits enclosed within porous pouches to improve the response after grafting. Specifically, we designed a new poly (ethylene glycol)-based pouch to avoid adhesion to the peritoneal wall and still allow the necessary peritoneal fluid to reach the enclosed conduit. The pouch mechanics in compression and bending were determined through experiments and finite element simulations to optimize the pouch design. This included poly (ethylene glycol) concentration, pore density, and pouch size. We demonstrated that the optimized pouch was able to withstand the estimated forces applied in the rat peritoneal cavity and it allowed maturation of the enclosed electrospun conduit. This pouch significantly reduced peritoneal adhesion formation compared to polytetrafluoroethylene pouches that have been used previously, which overcomes this potential limitation to clinical translation. After aortic grafting of pre-conditioned conduits, patent grafts with limited intimal hyperplasia were observed. Overall, this study demonstrated a new pouch design that allows the in vivo bioreactor strategy to be used for vascular tissue engineering without the potential side effect of peritoneal adhesion formation.

Chemically Responsive Hydrogel Deformation Mechanics: A Review.

A hydrogel is a polymeric three-dimensional network structure. The applications of this material type are diversified over a broad range of fields. Their soft nature and similarity to natural tissue allows for their use in tissue engineering, medical devices, agriculture, and industrial health products. However, as the demand for such materials increases, the need to understand the material mechanics is paramount across all fields. As a result, many attempts to numerically model the swelling and drying of chemically responsive hydrogels have been published. Material characterization of the mechanical properties of a gel bead under osmotic loading is difficult. As a result, much of the literature has implemented variants of swelling theories. Therefore, this article focuses on reviewing the current literature and outlining the numerical models of swelling hydrogels as a result of exposure to chemical stimuli. Furthermore, the experimental techniques attempting to quantify bulk gel mechanics are summarized. Finally, an overview on the mechanisms governing the formation of geometric surface instabilities during transient swelling of soft materials is provided.