In recent research on finding a new material working as a nerve guidance conduit (NGC) to repair injured or diseased peripheral nerves, double network hydrogels made from 1% alginate and 15% gelatin have shown promising results. The SEM images of the platinum-coated hydrogels with Vac Coat?DSR1?SEM coater display 6.5 times thicker pore walls for double network (DN) versus single network (SN) structure.
Y. Lee group at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) have shown that the mechanically strong, degradable, and biocompatible DN alginate/gelatin hydrogels, with enhanced performance through gamma irradiation, can serve as an innovative platform for biomedical applications as implantable tissue constructs and peripheral nerve regeneration.
The hydrogels were freeze-dried and sputter coated with a?thin film?of platinum with a thickness of 9 nm to get prepared for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The sputtering process was performed by DSR1 Vac Coat low vacuum sputter coater. The SEM images indicated that both DN and SN NGCs possessed the porous structures of typical hydrogels with nearly similar pore sizes for permitting nutrient and waste transport (Figure 1). However, the DN hydrogel network was much denser than the SN one, with DN pore walls approximately 6.5 times thicker than those in the SN hydrogels.
