Development of Environment-Responsive Hydrogels for the Delivery of Therapeutic Agents
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Date
2012-08-03
Authors
Shi, Junbin
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Abstract
This thesis includes two parts related to hydrogels as therapeutically useful constructs: a biomimetic hydrogel carrying stem cells for bone regeneration and an acid-sensitive hydrogel carrying drugs for cancer therapy. In tissue engineering, one of the biggest difficulties is the control of stem cell fate on scaffolds. A biodegradable and cell attachable cross-linker was synthesized by one-step Michael additional reaction, and was used to fabricate a novel hydrogel to control the stem cell fate. For anti-cancer therapy, releasing drug on tumor cells or organs while having low effects on health cells under physiological conditions is a critical requirement. Two nature polymers are modified to achieve loading anti-cancer drug while forming hydrogels which can selectively release the drug in tumor environment by acid-sensitive linkages.
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Keywords
Hydrogels, Environment-responsive, Stem cells, Cancer therapy