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Property-based design: optimization and characterization of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel and PVA-matrix composite for artificial cornea

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Abstract

Each approach for artificial cornea design is toward the same goal: to develop a material that best mimics the important properties of natural cornea. Accordingly, the selection and optimization of corneal substitute should be based on their physicochemical properties. In this study, three types of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels with different polymerization degree (PVA1799, PVA2499 and PVA2699) were prepared by freeze-thawing techniques. After characterization in terms of transparency, water content, water contact angle, mechanical property, root-mean-square roughness and protein adsorption behavior, the optimized PVA2499 hydrogel with similar properties of natural cornea was selected as a matrix material for artificial cornea. Based on this, a biomimetic artificial cornea was fabricated with core-and-skirt structure: a transparent PVA hydrogel core, surrounding by a ringed PVA-matrix composite skirt that composed of graphite, Fe-doped nano hydroxyapatite (n-Fe-HA) and PVA hydrogel. Different ratio of graphite/n-Fe-HA can tune the skirt color from dark brown to light brown, which well simulates the iris color of Oriental eyes. Moreover, morphologic and mechanical examination showed that an integrated core-and-skirt artificial cornea was formed from an interpenetrating polymer network, no phase separation appeared on the interface between the core and the skirt.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by China-Netherlands Program Strategic Alliances (No. 2008DFB50120), 863 National Key Project (No. 2011AA030102) and Sichuan Project (No. 2012FZ0125). The authors would like to thank Analytical & Testing Center and College of Polymer Science & Engineering of Sichuan University, China for the testing and analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Materials Science, School of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Jiang & Xiaochao Yang

  2. Research Center for Nano Biomaterials, Analytical & Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Jiang, Yi Zuo, Li Zhang, Jidong Li & Yubao Li

  3. Sinopec Sichuan Vinylon Factory, Chongqing, 401254, People’s Republic of China

    Aiming Zhang

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  1. Hong Jiang
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  2. Yi Zuo
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  3. Li Zhang
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Correspondence to Yi Zuo or Yubao Li.

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Jiang, H., Zuo, Y., Zhang, L. et al. Property-based design: optimization and characterization of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel and PVA-matrix composite for artificial cornea. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 25, 941–952 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-013-5121-0

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