Influence of temperature, pH and simulated biological solutions on swelling and structural properties of biomineralized (CaCO3) PVP–CMC hydrogel

Abstract

In the new era of biomedical field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicines, the utilization of materials generally comes in contact with any biological resources, in the form of either cells, tissues/organs, biomolecules, physiological fluids, etc., which desire the interdisciplinary scientific approach that merges the field of material science and technology, basic science and life science (Mano et al. 2007 ). In general, a tissue engineering process begins with the fabrication of a biologically compatible scaffold that will support the living cells for their attachment, proliferation and differentiation, and thus promotes tissue regeneration both in vitro and in vivo (Thavornyutikarn et al. 2014 ). Thus, during present days, intense interest has been given in the biomedical field of tissue engineering wherein several new biomaterials are constructs in the form of scaffold (i.e., polymeric material, bioceramics, biocomposites) can be implanted in patients to replace failing or malfunctioning organs (Mano et al. 2007 ). Moreover, several materials have been proposed to have their applications in biomedical fields among which significant attention has been given on the use of polymers, especially biopolymers and bioactive polymers. Polysaccharides and their derivatives have attracted much interest, especially the blends of natural and synthetic polymers are used because of their special properties in the form of soft rubbery nature resembling the living tissues, elasticity and also low cost (Zhu and Marchant 2011 ; Karadag et al. 2005 ). Among various kinds of polymeric systems that have been utilized till today, hydrogels have gained noticeable interest by the material scientists and are interpreted from different point of view (Kim and Park 2014 ; Sadeghi and Hosseinzadeh 2010 ).