Diseño y optimización computacional de un hidrogel bioimprimible para la fabricación de un parche cardíaco en ingeniería en tejidos

Abstract

The development of hydrogels for cardiac use currently presents problems of mechanical stability, cell adhesion, and bioprinting behavior. These difficulties are observed even in widely studied formulations such as gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), alginate, and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate, PEGDA), which, despite exhibiting a certain degree of biocompatibility with cardiac tissue, are affected in terms of both reproducibility and quality when manufacturing patches for the myocardium. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations are used as the main computational analysis tool. This approach allows us to study the structure of the PEGDA hydrogel at the nanometric scale, as well as its interaction with the aqueous medium and its response to dynamic conditions, reducing the need for repetitive experimental testing. Integrating these methods improves the ability to anticipate the performance of the material, reduces experimental costs, and facilitates academic training in multiscale modeling.