Making bijels-derived bicontinuous structures for tissue engineering applications using a newly developed technique

Abstract

Bicontinuous structures with interconnected pores are attractive for tissue engineering applications but making good bicontinuous structures is a challenge. Bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (“bijels”) are a recent discovery and can be used as templates to produce bicontinuous structures. However, common fabrication techniques for bijels involve complicated processes and are time-consuming. In our recent research, a greatly simplified method that can fabricate large three-dimensional bijels was developed. In this study, using this method, hexanedioldiacrylate (HDA)-water bijels were made first. HDA was then photo-crosslinked. The domain size in bijels could be changed by varying CTAB concentration in bijels fabrication. The “bijels” with crosslinked HDA were subsequently immersed into a Na-alginate solution for substituting water phase by alginate, taken out and immersed in a CaCl2 solution for crosslinking alginate, thereby forming bijels-derived hybrid hydrogel membranes with bicontinuous structures. Various techniques were used to study bijels and bijels-derived membranes. In vitro biological experiments were also performed. SEM and confocal microscopy revealed the bicontinuous phases. Cell viability tests showed the bicontinuous structures were biocompatible, and MTT results indicated good cell proliferation on these bicontinuous structures.