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An Initial Evaluation of Gellan Gum as a Material for Tissue Engineering Applications

Biomaterials Unit, School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham St Chad's Queensway, Birmingham, UK, Medicines Research Unit, School of Life and Health Sciences Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK

Richard M. Shelton

Biomaterials Unit, School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham St Chad's Queensway, Birmingham, UK

Yvonne Perrie

Medicines Research Unit, School of Life and Health Sciences Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK

Jonathan J. Harris

Biomaterials Unit, School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham St Chad's Queensway, Birmingham, UK, j.j.harris{at}bham.ac.uk

Alpha-modified minimum essential medium (MEM) has been found to cross-link a 1% gellan gum solution, resulting in the formation of a self-supporting hydrogel in 1:1 and 5:1 ratios of polysaccharide: MEM. Rheological data from temperature sweeps confirm that in addition to orders of magnitude differences in G^' between 1% gellan and 1% gellan with MEM, there is also a 20^°C increase in the temperature at which the onset of gelation takes place when MEM is present. Frequency sweeps confirm the formation of a true gel; mechanical spectra for mixtures of gellan and MEM clearly demonstrate G^' to be independent of frequency. It is possible to immobilize cells within a three-dimensional (3D) gellan matrix that remain viable for up to 21 days in culture by adding a suspension of rat bone marrow cells (rBMC) in MEM to 1% gellan solution. This extremely simple approach to cell immobilization within 3D constructs, made possible by the fact that gellan solutions cross-link in the presence of millimolar concentrations of cations, poses a very low risk to a cell population immobilized within a gellan matrix and thus indicates the potential of gellan for use as a tissue engineering scaffold.

Key Words: gellan • hydrogel • bone • cell viability • three-dimensional.

This version was published on November 1, 2007

Journal of Biomaterials Applications, Vol. 22, No. 3, 241-254 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0885328207076522


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