Hemocompatibility and swelling studies of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-itaconic acid-co-poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate) hydrogels

In this study novel series of hydrogels, based on 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), itaconic acid (IA) and poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylates (PEGDMA) (of varying molecular weight and concentration) were prepared by free radical crosslinking copolymerization. Preliminary hemocompatibility characterization of hydrogels obtained by hemolytic activity assay indicated good compatibility with blood. Preliminary biocompatibility characterization of P(HEMA/IA/PEGDMA) hydrogels, done by the cytotoxicity assays using the HeLa cell line revails that the cell viability of all samples was the range of 97?100%, with no significant decrease in cell viability with the change of PEGDMA molecular weight and concentration. Swelling studies were conducted for all P(HEMA/IA/PEGDMA) samples in a physiological pH and temperature range and network parameters were determined. Swelling studies showed pH sensitive behaviour, typical for anionic hydrogels, and temperature dependent swelling. The effects of concentration of PEGDMA component on hydrogel swelling properties depend on the PEGDMA molecular weight. The samples with 550PEGDMA show different swelling capacities when 550PEGDMA content is changed, whereas for P(HEMA/IA/875PEGDMA) samples there was practically no difference in equilibrium degree of swelling, qe ,with varying 875PEGDMA content, which trend is the same as in the case of qe versus pH dependences. It was concluded that P(HEMA/IA/PEGDMA) hydrogels show good potential to be used as biomedical materials.