Synthesis and Properties of Gelatin Methacryloyl (GelMA) Hydrogels and Their Recent Applications in Load-Bearing Tissue

Photocrosslinked gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels have attracted great concern in the biomedical field because of their good biocompatibility and tunable physicochemical properties. Herein, different approaches to synthesize GelMA were introduced, especially, the typical method using UV light...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mingyue Sun, Xiaoting Sun, Ziyuan Wang, Shuyu Guo, Guangjiao Yu, Huazhe Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
Series:Polymers
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/10/11/1290
Description
Summary:Photocrosslinked gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels have attracted great concern in the biomedical field because of their good biocompatibility and tunable physicochemical properties. Herein, different approaches to synthesize GelMA were introduced, especially, the typical method using UV light to crosslink the gelatin-methacrylic anhydride (MA) precursor was introduced in detail. In addition, the traditional and cutting-edge technologies to characterize the properties of GelMA hydrogels and GelMA prepolymer were also overviewed and compared. Furthermore, the applications of GelMA hydrogels in cell culture and tissue engineering especially in the load-bearing tissue (bone and cartilage) were summarized, followed by concluding remarks.
ISSN:2073-4360