Saloplastics: A Novel Application of Polyelectrolyte Complexes in Biomaterials Haifa H. Hariri and Joseph B. Schlenoff The Florida State University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Tallahassee, Florida 32306

摘要

Synthetic materials with comparable properties to biological tissues are of growing interest in the field of biomaterials and biomedical research. In particular, hydrogels, which are defined as polymeric networks containing more than 50 wt % water, have been useful in many bio-applications serving as scaffolds providing similar properties to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Tissues consist of hydrated, charged biomacromolecules (protein, polysaccharide, etc.), physically interacting with each other. For this reason, synthetic materials from polyelectrolytes are of special interest as they can closely mimic properties of natural tissues. Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) are amorphous physical hydrogels that are stabilized by ion pair cross-links between the oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. In the current work, we report a method for preparing PECs from sodium poly(4-styrene sulfonate) (NaPSS) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC); these were turned into compact rugged hydrogels by ultracentrifugation. These complexes were characterized on different levels and they showed interesting structural and mechanical similarities to the articular cartilage of intervertebral disks.