Electron microscope image of the porous hydrogel. Credit: UNH

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) have created a hydrogel which could be made into a contact lens to more effectively treat corneal melting.

Often injectable hydrogels are applied to irregular-shaped wounds to help form a temporary matrix or structure to keep the wound stable while cells rejuvenate, said Kyung Jae Jeong, assistant professor of chemical engineering at UNH, but current hydrogels are not porous enough and do not allow neighbouring cells to pass through to help the wound mend. “We discovered a simple solution to make the hydrogels more porous and help speed up the healing.”

In the study, published in ACS Applied Bio Materials, researchers said they made a macroporous hydrogel by combining readily available gelatin microgels - hydrogels a few hundred microns in diameter - with an inexpensive enzyme called microbial transglutaminase (mTG). Gelatin was used because it is a natural protein derived from collagen. Assembling these tiny microgels with mTG helped create a hydrogel with large enough pores for the neighbouring cells to move into the wound to help with repair. This new injectable formulation also allows for the slow release of protein drugs to aid wound healing, such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF).

The research was done in vitro and ex vivo and suggests the new hydrogel could be a viable therapeutic option for treating corneal melting, reported Science Daily, adding the end goal was to make the hydrogel into a contact lens allowing more localised treatment of the eye and avoiding side effects in the rest of the body.