| 초록 |
Hydrogels have been used extensively in biomaterials and drug delivery applications. In most cases, the useful properties of the hydrogels are based on the swollen hydrogels, i.e., hydrogels that have been exposed to an abundant amount of water. In many cases, however, there are needs to handle hydrogels in the dried state (known as xerogels) before exposing them to aqueous environments, including body fluids. One of the recent applications of hydrogels has been in the tissue expander area. Tissue expanders have been used to grow extra skin for use in reconstructing various parts of the body. In this study, a series of biodegradable block copolymer hydrogels showing a delayed swelling property were synthesized and evaluated for tissue expansion application. |
