Effect of polymer and ion concentration on mechanical and drug release behavior of gellan hydrogels using factorial design
Abstract
Developing optimized hydrogel products requires an in‐depth understanding of the mechanisms that drive hydrogel tunability. Here, we performed a full 4 × 4 factorial design study investigating the impact of gellan, a naturally derived polysaccharide (1%, 2%, 3%, or 4% w/v) and CaCl2 concentration (1, 3, 7, or 10 mM) on the viscoelastic, swelling, and drug release behavior of gellan hydrogels containing a model drug, vancomycin. These concentrations were chosen to specifically provide insight into gellan hydrogel behavior for formulations utilizing polymer and salt concentrations expanding beyond those commonly reported by previous studies exploring gellan. With increasing gellan and CaCl2 concentration, the hydrogel storage moduli (0.1–100 kPa) followed a power‐law relationship and on average these hydrogels had higher liquid absorption capability and greater total drug release over 6 days. We suggest that the effects of gellan and CaCl2 concentration and their interactions on hydrogel properties can be explained by various phenomena that lead to increased swelling and increased resistance to network expansion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 08, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1002/pol.20190205
Entities
People
- Anita Shukla
- Anubhav Tripathi
- Joseph Favata
- Shashank Shukla
- Sina Shahbazmohamadi
- Vikas Srivastava
Organizations
- Brown University
- Office of Naval Research
- University of Connecticut