Insights into Mechanical Behavior and Biological Properties of Chia Seed Mucilage Hydrogels
1
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via Licio Giorgieri 5, 34127 Trieste, Italy
2
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Orabona, 4, 70126 Bari, Italy
3
Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Piazza dell’Ospitale 1, 34129 Trieste, Italy
4
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences (DiAAA) and Center for Colloid and Surface Science (CSGI), University of Molise, Via De Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: David Díaz Díaz
Gels 2021, 7(2), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020047
Received: 24 March 2021
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Revised: 6 April 2021
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Accepted: 15 April 2021
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Published: 20 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Collection Feature Papers in Gel Materials)
In this contribution we report insights on the rheological properties of chia (Salvia hispanica) seed mucilage hydrogels. Creep experiments performed in steady state conditions allowed calculation of Newtonian viscosities for chia hydrogels with different polymer concentration, pointing at inter-chain interactions as the main responsible for the different behavior toward network slipping under constant stress. A combination of oscillatory frequency and stress sweep tests highlighted a moderate effect of temperature in influencing hydrogel mechanics. The latter results prompted us to investigate potential biological functions for this set of biomaterials. Lactate Dehydrogenase assay proved the lack of cytotoxicity of chia suspensions toward Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells from adipose tissue used here as a cell model. Differentiation experiments were finally undertaken to verify the influence of chia samples on osteo-induction triggered by chemical differentiation factors. Alkaline Phosphatase enzyme activity assay and Alizarin red staining demonstrated that chia mucilage did not alter in vitro stem cell differentiation. Collectively, this set of experiments revealed an almost inert role associated with chia suspensions, indicating a possible application of chia-based networks as scaffold models to study osteogenesis in vitro.
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Keywords:
chia seeds; mucilage; hydrogels; mechanical behavior; cytotoxicity; osteogenesis
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MDPI and ACS Style
Sacco, P.; Lipari, S.; Cok, M.; Colella, M.; Marsich, E.; Lopez, F.; Donati, I. Insights into Mechanical Behavior and Biological Properties of Chia Seed Mucilage Hydrogels. Gels 2021, 7, 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020047
AMA Style
Sacco P, Lipari S, Cok M, Colella M, Marsich E, Lopez F, Donati I. Insights into Mechanical Behavior and Biological Properties of Chia Seed Mucilage Hydrogels. Gels. 2021; 7(2):47. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020047
Chicago/Turabian StyleSacco, Pasquale, Sara Lipari, Michela Cok, Matilde Colella, Eleonora Marsich, Francesco Lopez, and Ivan Donati. 2021. "Insights into Mechanical Behavior and Biological Properties of Chia Seed Mucilage Hydrogels" Gels 7, no. 2: 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels7020047
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