Table 2.
Experimentally-determined hydrogel characteristics.
| Experimental Group |
Swelling Ratio (Q) |
Compressive Modulus (K) in kPa* |
Effective Crosslink Density (νe) in µmol/cm3 |
Molecular Weight between Crosslinks (Mc) in kg/mol |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keratose | 1.18 ± 0.26# | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 7% S-S MKTN | 1.07 ± 0.01# | 10.4 ± 1.98# | 4.12 ± 0.79# | 87.7 ± 19.9# |
| 74% S-S MKTN | 1.06 ± 0.02# | 53.0 ± 19.8 | 21.1 ±7.90 | 19.2 ± 9.4 |
| 80% S-S MKTN | 1.05 ± 0.01# | 26.4 ± 2.4# | 10.6 ± 0.96# | 33.4 ± 3.2# |
| Kerateine | 1.01 ± 0.01 | 42.8 ± 8.9 | 17.3 ± 3.58 | 21.1 ± 5.2 |
N/A indicates not available because keratose gels were too soft to obtain reliable values for compressive modulus with 10 N or 100 N load cells. Values indicate average ± standard deviation. N = 4.
#
indicates statistically different from KTN (P<0.05) as determined by student t-test for the indicated measurement (Q or K) or calculation (νe or Mc).
*
Compressive modulus was determined by fitting the non-linear stress-stretch results to a one-term Ogden model of hyperelasticity.