Figure 3.

pH, swelling, and turbidity of the injectable chitosan–collagen hydrogel containing different fucoidan concentrations. (a) The pH was measured before and after gelation. (b) The swelling capacity of the hydrogels was estimated by determination of the equilibrium swelling ratio (ESR). Hydrogels were lyophilized and rehydrated until reaching equilibrium. ESR = (w_s − w_d)/w_d); w_s, w_d = weight of swollen and dried hydrogel, respectively. (c) The turbidity of the sols was quantified by measuring the absorbance at 600 nm. (d) Sols containing 500 µg/mL fucoidan are visibly more turbid. Scale bar = 1 cm. Experiments were repeated three times (n = 3). Significances compared to the control (hydrogel with 0 µg/mL Fucoidan) were calculated with the unpaired t-test (* p < 0.05, *** p < 0.001, **** p < 0.0001).