Study on Biological Safety of Polyvinyl Alcohol/Collagen Hydrogel as Tissue Substitute (I)

The hydrogel based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and collagen was prepared by using a freeze-dried method. To evaluate the biological safety of the PVA/collagen hydrogel, which has a potential application in tissue substitute, cell viability and growth were assessed by using methylthiazoletetrazolium (MTT) assay and Alamar Blue assay; Micronucleus test was reckoned to identify genotoxicity, and sensitivity test was aimed to detect allergic response to skin. The results demonstrated that no significant cytotoxicity of the PVA/collagen hydrogen against L929 mouse fibroblasts was observed. The micronucleus frequency of PVA/collagen was (2.5 +/- 0.79)parts per thousand, which showed no genotoxic effects either. In addition, there was no allergic response in long-term application. This study suggests that PVA/collagen hydrogen does not demonstrate any significant toxic effects to fibroblastic cells in-vitro and has the potential to be used as scaffolds in tissue engineering applications.