Permeability Mapping of Gelatin Methacryloyl Hydrogels

Publication date: Available online 4 July 2018
Source:Acta Biomaterialia
Author(s): Amir K. Miri, Hossein Goodarzi Hosseinabadi, Berivan Cecen, Shabir Hassan, Yu Shrike Zhang
We report the development of an efficient, customized spherical indentation-based testing method to systematically estimate the hydraulic permeability of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels fabricated in a wide range of mass concentrations and photocrosslinking conditions. Numerical simulations and Biot's theory of poroelasticity were implemented to calibrate our experimental data. We correlated elastic moduli and permeability coefficients with different GelMA concentrations and crosslinking densities. It was revealed that the permeability values of GelMA followed a negative power-law function of the crosslinking time. Our model could also predict drug release rates from the GelMA hydrogels and diffusion efficiency of nutrients into the three-dimensional GelMA hydrogels. The results potentially provide a design map for choosing desired GelMA-based hydrogels for use in drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine, which may be further expanded to predict the permeability behaviors of various other hydrogel types.

Graphical abstract

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