Texture-property relations of bioamine crosslinked gellan gum hydrogels

Abstract

Gellan gum is a hydrogel with potential for soft tissue engineering but a quick and thorough method is needed for screening of different possible compositions for more extensive studies. Here optical projection tomography in bright field mode was used to image nearly transparent hydrogels to record their optical texture in 3D. The gained Haralick’s textural features were then analyzed with multiple discriminant analysis and combined with data from mechanical testing and neuronal cell culturing. We show the usefulness of optical texture analysis in screening of hydrogel compositions when aiming for tissue engineering applications.