Week One Progress

Figure 1: Diagram of preliminary design

The culmination of the hydrogel modulation design will yield a hydrogel wound dressing utilized for the therapeutic treatment of first-degree and second-degree exterior burns. A physical prototype of the hydrogel wound dressing will be produced by precipitating food-grade sodium alginate in a calcium chloride solution. The reaction yields spheres of low-density gel surrounded by a thin gelatinous membrane. The construction of an alginate dressing necessitates ionic cross-linking of the alginate solution with calcium ions, as to form the gel component. Both the high-density and low-density hydrogel layers will be generated in unison, before undergoing the freeze-drying process as to produce porous sheets. The physical prototype will be accompanied by a computer generated model of the hydrogel wound dressing, as evidenced in figure 1. The required components to construct the hydrogel adhesive were determined and subsequently purchased. The required components for the construction of the hydrogel adhesive, include: glassware, pipettes, sodium alginate, calcium chloride solution, FITC-BSA, spectrophotometer, and modeling tools. Moreover, food coloring will be required to dye the layers of hydrogel in different colors. Thus, the visible separation of hydrogel layers will determine whether the layers will transgress beyond the delineated boundaries. The construction of the tangible hydrogel adhesive prototype is expected to be completed within nine-weeks.

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Week Three Progress

During Week Three, we discussed and determined our therapeutic agent for the hydrogel module. After extensive research and comparison of our options, we decided the best-suited therapeutic would be zinc oxide. This substance fits our design so well because it is hydrophobic and will slowly disperse through the pores in the bottom hydrogel layer. Zinc oxide has been used in past hydrogel models and has been proven to be effective. It is an agent that has been used in ointments and supplements to treat burns and prevent infections. Likewise, the possibility of overdosing on zinc-oxide necessitates a solution for controlled therapeutic release. The predominant delivery system for zinc oxide is through medicinal cream, the delivery through which enables the therapeutic threshold of zinc oxide to be increased to levels of high toxicity. Symptoms of zinc-oxide overdose include: fever, chills, vomiting, mouth irritation, stomach pain, and yellowing of the eyes and skin. Consequently, the phar...

Week Five Progress

During week five, more research was done and the group was able to decide on the exact concentrations of calcium chloride to use in making each hydrogel layer as well as in the beads. The higher the concentration of calcium chloride, the more dense the hydrogel layer will be. Thus, for the thin, low-density layer, as well as for the low-density beads, a 5% calcium chloride solution will be used. For the thick, high-density layer, a 7% calcium chloride solution will be used. Refer to Figure 1, below, for a visual of the design. Figure 1: Preliminary Diagram of the Hydrogel Wound Dressing Another task that was completed this week was additional planning for the testing phase. Once the hydrogel has been constructed, samples of it will be placed into cuvettes, and fluorescently-labeled bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) will be injected into the cuvettes, one at a time, in intervals of four hours. This will occur over a period of two days, and at the end of the two day...

Week Eight Progress

During the eighth week of the hydrogel restructuring module, testing trials were conducted to determine the therapeutic release rates of variant hydrogel densities, including sample of: high-density, low-density, intermediate-density, and a layered sample of both high and low densities. The testing of the hydrogel layers was conducted by the injection of the fluorescent signal protein, FITC-BSA, within each sample. The hydrogel samples containing FITC-BSA were constructed at three-six hour intervals, then tested concurrently through the spectrophotometer. The testing phase was completed twice during week eight. During the first testing phase, the employment of tap water in the construction of the samples had produced hydrogel samples that were not uniform in consistency. As such, a second trial was conducted in which pure water was utilized to account for the mistakes of the first testing phase. The second trial proceeded to the spectrophotometer phase of testing. The results of the s...

Group 076-11: Modulating Hydrogel Structure for Therapeutic Release

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