Investigation and Characterization of Factors Affecting Rheological Properties of Poloxamer-Based Thermo-Sensitive Hydrogel

Poloxamers are negatively temperature-sensitive hydrogels and their hydrophilic groups interact with water molecules at lower temperatures (liquid phase) while their hydrophobic groups interact more strongly with increases in temperature causing gelation. To investigate the factors affecting the rheological properties of poloxamers, various parameters including different poloxamer P407 concentrations, poloxamers P407/P188 blending ratios and additives were examined. The results presented a clear trend of decreasing gelling temperature/time when P407 was at higher concentrations. Moreover, the addition of P188 enhanced the gelling temperature regardless of poloxamer concentration. Polysaccharides and their derivatives have been widely used as components of hydrogel and we found that alginic acid (AA) or carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) reduced the gelling temperature of poloxamers. In addition, AA-containing poloxamer promoted cell proliferation and both AA -and CMC-containing poloxamer hydrogels reduced cell migration. This study investigated the intriguing characteristics of poloxamer-based hydrogel, providing useful information to compounding an ideal and desired thermo-sensitive hydrogel for further potential clinical applications such as development of sprayable anti-adhesive barrier, wound-healing dressings or injectable drug-delivery system for cartilage repair.