Sharif Digital Repository

Polyampholyte hydrogels are hydrophilic networks that contain both positively- and negatively-charged functional groups on their structure. Polysulfobetaines are the most important type of polyampholytes, which have been extensively studied. However, these hydrogels exhibited poor gel strength causing limitation of their applications. Consequently, much attention has been focused on the preparation of nanocomposite hydrogels with high gel strength and lower cost using organomodified clays. In this project, Novel polyampholytic superabsorbing nanocomposites based on the zwitterionic sulfobetaine monomer [3-(methacrylamido)propyl)]dimethyl(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide (MPDSAH) were... 

Hydrogels are kind of polymers that have ability of frequently applications in agriculture, hygienic, drug delivery and etc. suitable mechanical strength is one of the features of this material. If mechanical strength reduces, efficiency of hydrogels in variety of application will decrease. There are several ways for gel strength improvement, such as cyclic structure for example fumarates, surface crosslinking and preparation of interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs). Making of nanocomposite structure in hydrogels, using nanostructures, can improve physical-mechanical properties, surprisingly. Therefore, combination of interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) and nanocomposite structures can... 

Methods that has been used for articular defects are faced with many limitations, so new therapies based on tissue engineering were taken into consideration in recent years. However, tissue engineering also encounters challenges regarding optimal scaffold construction and suitable cell source selection. Mature harvested chondrocytes are limited in number and may lose their chondrogenic potential in several cultures, leading to dedifferentiation. In addition, using stem cells also presents unique challenges associated with them, among which hypertrophic differentiation is the most substantial problem. Choosing the appropriate biomaterial similar to the cartilage structure with sufficient... 

Bone is one of the most vital parts of the body for almost any functional movement. Due to its many involved diseases, traumas and injuries, bone maintenance and regeneration are of high importance. Engineering and design of complex tissues, with impeccable mimicry of the native ones, are always accounted as the solution to dysfunction of body organs due to aging, various diseases, etc. However, the inability to complete mimicry of the native tissue architecture and cell microenvironment are the main barriers to functional tissue regeneration. In this project, in order to design a suitable scaffold for bone regeneration, hydrogel nanocomposites with polysaccharide basis were developed by... 

The methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) from reservoirs have been taken into consideration recently due to the decline in oil reserves and the rise in energy demand. Studies and investigations indicate the tremendous potential of chemical approaches based on injecting ionic liquids into the porous media with the goal of improving oil recovery. Additionally, hydrogels and polymers, which are two of the process' primary materials, are thought to be good alternatives. In the current study, a hydrogel based on carboxymethyl cellulose was first created and synthesized. Ionic liquids based on imidazolium and triflate anion were then added, and their effectiveness in enhancing the properties... 

The nucleus pulposus, which is a part of intervertebral disc, is normally hydrated and gel-like to maintain normal biomechanical functions of the disc through intradiscal pressures. In a degenerated disc, however, water content of nucleus is significantly reduced, resulting in an abnormal stress state of the annulus. Surgical interventions cannot restore the biomedical function to vertebral segment. One approach to restore the normal biomechanics of an intervertebral disc is to replace the nucleus with a prosthetic material which leads to a restoration of the behavior of the disc. The mechanical behavior of poly(vinyl alcohol) and nanodiamond hydrogel may provide a material suitable for... 

In recent years, it is expected that the fabrication of multilayer scaffolds and the use of different methodologies in one product can be a new progressing method in skin substitute production. Accordingly, this project aims to fabricate a bilayered composite scaffold with a combination of hydrogel and electrospinning method. We have tried to prepare a scaffold made of oxidized alginate (OAL), gelatin (G), and silk fibroin (SF) without using corrosive solvents and toxic crosslinking agents as a scaffold and drug delivery system. As different biological, chemical, physical, and mechanical factors play a vital role in the healing process, we have characterized the proposed scaffold via DSC,... 

Light-sensitive hydrogels are advanced materials with modern applications that have the ability to deform with light radiation at specific frequencies. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the behavior and deformation of these materials. Most studies have experimentally investigated the light-sensitive behavior of hydrogels. On the other hand, modeling the behavior of light-sensitive hydrogels is very complicated, so that the use of these models is possible only in certain cases. Therefore, in the present study, the existing studies have been reviewed in order to simplify the relationships governing the deformation of light-sensitive hydrogels. In this regard, the deformation... 

In recent years, burns and deep wounds that occur in various accidents are important reasons of death in the world. Therefore, the healing process of burn and full thickness of wounds due to late treatment has always been considered by physicians. Thus, the correct treatment and speed of healing of these types of wounds have always been studied. Many synthetic and natural materials have been used to treat wounds, which among them, hydrogels have received a great attention due to creating a moist environment for wounds and absorbing secretions. However, external mechanical stresses may degrade the therapeutic hydrogel. Recently, self-healing coating hydrogels have been designed and developed... 

This article investigates the production of a novel nerve regeneration scaffold by using biodegradable and biocompatible components. In this research, we have provided different methods like electrospinning and PE hydrogels to fabricate it. Electrospun fibers are made of PLLA and CS/Gel combinations. ZnO nanoparticles were used as the piezoelectric agent. Piezoelectricity plays an important part in the strcture of neurons giving them the ability to transfer electrical messages throughout the body. NPs were completely dispersed in the PLLA solution. ZnO particles could increase produced voltages as the concentration increases. PLLA is biodegradable and provide good mechanical properties.... 

Double network (DN) hydrogels are a new interpenetrate polymer network (IPN) that are usually contain about 60-90 % water. Despite of this amount of water, they are though and strong. DN hydrogels comprise of two networks, the first one as the brittle gel, is generally high density crosslinked and the second one, the loose and stretchable network, is loosely crosslinked or even without crosslinking. Therefore, we used cationic polymer, chitosan, and anionic polymer, alginate, as the first networks, therefore, we used sodium phosphate for physical crosslinking of chitosan, and calcium chloride as the physical crosslinking agents for alginate network. Also, poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), as the... 

In recent years, many efforts have been made in the field of drug delivery with hydrogel nanoparticles. This class of materials has been at the center of attention in medical science due to their improved physical and biological properties including high amount of water preservation, penetration, bio capampatibility and physical structure similar to outside matrices of tissue. Among various applications in medical sciences, drug delivery based on hydrogels is very attractive. Hydrogels can protect drugs from aggressive environmental factors such as pH and thermal changes, and presence of enzymes. The porosity of hydrogels facilitates drug loading into the gel matrix and provides a... 

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is a blood-derived product containing concentrate of platelets, which are a rich source of autologous growth factors. PRP injection has been used clinically as a therapeutic method for cartilage repair. However, clinical efficiency of this method is unpredictable, maybe as a result of burst release of growth factors then fail cell-stimulating potential as most biomolecules are cleaned before they can exert a therapeutic effect. The aim of this project was to prepare a suitable scaffold for PRP delivery to regenerate cartilage injuries. In order to resemble polysaccharide-protein nature of the cartilaginous extracellular matrix, in this study, we developed an... 

Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel is a biocompatible material, which has been widely applied in drug delivery applications. Microspheres, nanospheres, and other types of particle-based drug delivery vehicles have proven capacity for long-term release. There is growing interest to overcoming the inherent pharmacological limitations of hydrogels by formulating particulate systems into the hydrogel matrix to form new delivery platforms. We here describe a simple composite system based on poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels containing entrapped drug-loaded poly (lactic acid) (PLA) microspheres for controlled delivery over extended period of time. Gamma-Irradiation and freeze-thawing was... 

In this thesis, the mechanical properties of collagen hydrogels were characterized using Finite Element method and the collagen content effect on the mechanical properties of hydrogels were investigated. Hydrogels samples with different collagen content were assessed which caused diverse mechanical behaviors. Due to the nonlinear behavior of hydrogels, using numerical methods and simulation softwars can be helpful to determine the mechanical properties of these material and save agreat deal of time. Finite Viscoelaticity theory was exploited for a UMAT Subroutine in Abaqus and an special Starin Energy Function was selected to extract the formulations. The agreement between simulation results... 

Skin tissue as the first protective barrier to the body is always exposed to the most injuries. The purpose of this project is to design an optimum skin scaffold capable of drug delivery for skin wounds healing. To this end, the skin scaffold has been considered as a combination of a hydrogel structure containing polymer microspheres carrying growth factor. Polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate polymers were utilized to make the hydrogel substrate. The hydrogel structure was optimized from the viewpoint of the percentage of gelation, water absorption, porosity, mechanical properties, biodegradability, biocompatibility and considering the volume percent of utilized polymers and the... 

Articular cartilage resides in a complex and dynamic mechanical and biophysical environment in vivo. Chondrocyte physiology and biosynthetic activity is influenced by these signals, allowing them to modulate the structural organization and function of tissue at all stages, including development, growth and repair. . In articular cartilage, during physical activity and mechanical loading, electric signal have been observed in form of stress-generated electric potential following the movement of the positive mobile ions (in interstitial fluid) away from the fixed negative charges.Despite increasing evidence that mechanical and electrical stimuli have positive effects on chondrogenesis, to... 

This thesis focouses on the preparation and super-swelling behavior of two superabsorbent hydrogel. In the first section, a new superabsorbent hydrogel based on agar was prepared and the effect of the ratio of some components(AA, AAM, MBA, APS and agar) on the swelling capasity of the hydrogel was studied. Maximum water absorbency of the optimized final product was found to be 614.5 g/g in distilled water. The structure of the hydrogel was characterized by FT-IR method and morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy(SEM). Swelling behavior properties of optimized hydrogel sample in different swelling medium were investigated. In the second section, we report the... 

Growth factors play an important role in tissue repair and regeneration including articular cartilage tissue. Direct injection of growth factor is a common practice in clinics. However, it has been shown that this method is not very effective and, in some cases, induces some side effects. Moreover, incorporation of this valuable signals in systems where they are quickly released and washed out is not effective as well. Thereby the aim of this study was to design and fabricate an efficient system to effectively deliver growth factors for cartilage tissue engineering. The designed system is an injectable, in situ forming hydrogel, based on hyaluronic acid (HA) as a biocompatible and attractive... 

Preformed particle gels (PPGs) due to its advatantage over commonly used in situ gels has been successfully applied for controlling excess water production in mature oil reservoirs. Field results of using PPGs in oil fields shows that commonly used PPGs are highly sensitive to hard reservoir conditions such as high temperature and salinity and can not effectively block fractures and high permeability layers.Objects of this study are synthesis and evaluating performance of this novel polymer based hydrogel in oil reservoirs with high temperature and salinity. Central composite design ( which is a experiment design approach) was used for synthesizing thirteen gel samples and optimal sample was...