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US 10,647,959 B2Granted
Cell-friendly inverse opal hydrogels for cell encapsulation, drug and protein delivery, and functional nanoparticle encapsulation
AssigneePresident and Fellows of Harvard College
InventorsDavid J. Mooney, Jaeyun Kim, Sidi A. Bencherif, Weiwei Aileen Li
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Abstract
The invention provides polymer scaffolds for cell-based tissue engineering.
Claims24
An inverse opal hydrogel scaffold device comprising a polymer matrix, a plurality of cells encapsulated in the polymer matrix, and a sacrificial porogen,
- wherein said sacrificial porogen is a porogen polymer selected from the group consisting of an ionically-crosslinked polymer, a thermosensitive polymer, a thermoresponsive polymer, a pH-sensitive polymer, and a photocleavable polymer, and
- wherein said sacrificial porogen is removable from said scaffold device by contact with a chelating agent, a change in temperature or pH, or exposure to light to form open, interconnected pores;
- and
- wherein said polymer matrix occupies an interstitial space between said sacrificial porogen.
1 more element
An inverse opal hydrogel scaffold device comprising a polymer matrix, a plurality of cells encapsulated in the polymer matrix, and a sacrificial porogen,
- wherein said sacrificial porogen is a porogen polymer selected from the group consisting of an ionically-crosslinked polymer, a thermosensitive polymer, a thermoresponsive polymer, a pH-sensitive polymer, and a photocleavable polymer,
- wherein the hydrogel has open, interconnected pores after removal of the sacrificial porogen by contact with a chelating agent, a change in temperature or pH, or exposure to light,
- wherein said polymer matrix comprises covalent crosslinking, and
- wherein said polymer matrix further comprises an isolated eukaryotic cell encapsulated in said crosslinked polymer matrix which occupies an interstitial space between said sacrificial porogen.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.