Table 2.

PEG and PEG-ChS Hydrogel Formulations and Their Resulting Properties

Hydrogel	PEGDMa (w/w) %	ChS-MAb (w/w) %	[DB](M)c	qd	Ke (kPa)
PEG-only	100	0	0.065	9.6 ± 0.3	46 ± 5
20% ChS	80	20	0.061	11.1 ± 0.3***	78 ± 8*
40% ChS	60	40	0.058	12.9 ± 0.2***, #	70 ± 3*

^aPoly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDM) macromer concentration prior to polymerization;

^bMethacrylated chondroitin sulfate (ChS-MA) macromer concentration prior to polymerization;

^cTotal double bond concentration ([DB]) in the macromer solution prior to polymerization based on ChS-MA (~48,700g/mol) (Bryant et. al., 2004b) substituted with 23 methacrylates per ChS molecule as determined by NMR and PEGDM (3000 g/mol);

^dMass Swelling Ratio (q);

^eTangent Compressive Modulus (K);

^*p<0.05,

^***p<0.001 compared to PEG-only gel;

^#p<0.001 compared to PEG-ChS gels (80:20).