Biomineralization of agarose gel: Electrophoresis approach for homogeneous and quickly forming hydroxyapatite

POLY 276

Junji Watanabe, junji@chem.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp, Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan and Mitsuru Akashi, akashi@chem.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp, Center of Excellence (COE) Program for 21st Century, and Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
This paper deals with a novel agarose-hydroxyapatite composite formation using an electrophoresis approach. Generally, hydroxyapatite was formed on/in a substrate using simulated body fluid or alternate soaking process. However, it takes much long time to form the hydroxyapatite composite completely, because calcium and phosphate ions were subjected to diffusion coefficient. In this paper, we discovered a novel preparation method for hydroxyapatite formation. By using the electrophoresis, the ions come into the agarose hydrogel quickly. Furthermore, the hydroxyapatite was formed in other non-ionic hydrogels such as poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(acryl amide) hydrogel. It is of our great interest that the novel method using the electrophoresis is promising approach for preparation of the hydroxyapatite. Although this study has been recently initiated and is now pursued further, the preparative method is quite new and has been never proposed.
 

7th International Biorelated Polymers Symposium
1:30 PM-5:10 PM, Monday, 11 September 2006 San Francisco Marriott -- Salon 14/15, Oral

Division of Polymer Chemistry

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006