本研究為開發一咪喹莫特 2-甲基-2-丙烯酸-2-（甲氧基乙氧基）乙酯 （MEO2MA）水凝膠敷料，並且探討其抑制蟹足腫細胞增生的效果。我們檢測4種含不同比例交聯劑(二乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸酯（DEGDMA）)的MEO2MA水凝膠，其中以0.2 mol% MEO2MA水凝膠為最佳的咪喹莫特敷料載體材料。MEO2MA水凝膠的最低臨界共溶溫度（LCST），約為24°C，此溫度為水凝膠溶脹和退脹行為的關鍵溫度。同時咪喹莫特的承載和釋放行為，亦是透過水凝膠的溶脹和退脹行為進行。本研究分別探討水凝膠於超純水（Milli-Q water），二甲基甲醯胺（DMF）和磷酸鹽緩衝生理鹽水（PBS）中的溶脹和退脹能力。製作完成的咪喹莫特-MEO2MA水凝膠中，每1mm3 的體積中，咪喹莫特的負載量約27.4 μg。另外，藥物釋放實驗結果指出，於37°C的PBS溶液中，在3天內，咪喹莫特從水凝膠敷料所釋放的量可達總負載量的42.3%。最後於細胞實驗中，蟹足腫成纖維細胞被培養於咪喹莫特-MEO2MA水凝膠樣品上，並且藉由CCK-8法評估蟹足腫成纖維細胞之活性。透過與無含藥之MEO2MA水凝膠樣品比較，咪喹莫特-MEO2MA水凝膠墊於3天內減少了32%的細胞活性。開發的咪喹莫特-MEO2MA水凝膠敷料可以有效抑制蟹足腫成纖維細胞的增殖。因此，咪喹莫特-MEO2MA水凝膠具有極高的潛力應用於治療蟹足腫。

The imiquimod 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethyl methacrylate (MEO2MA) hydrogel dressing was developed for the keloid therapy application. Four different di(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (DEGDMA) cross-linked amount of MEO2MA hydrogels were characterised and the 0.2 mol% MEO2MA hydrogel was selected as the appropriate imiquimod carrier dressing material. The MEO2MA hydrogel performed a lower critical solution temperature (LCST), which served as a trigger to turn the swelling and deswelling behaviours, at approximately 24°C. The performances of imiquimod loading and releasing were based on the swelling and deswelling properties. The swelling and deswelling ratios were separately measured in Milli-Q water, dimethylformamid (DMF) and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solutions. The combinative loading procedure was developed to embed the imiquimod into the MEO2MA hydrogel pad. The fabricated imiquimod-MEO2MA hydrogel dressing demonstrated the imiquimod loaded amount reached to about 27.4 μg per 1 mm3 of hydrogel. The released amount of imiquimod from the hydrogel dressing reached to 42.3% of total loaded imiquimod in the PBS solution at 37°C within 3 days. Keloid fibroblasts were cultured on the fabricated imiquimod-MEO2MA pad and CCK-8 assay were applied to evaluate the cell viability of keloid fibroblasts. By comparison with the pure-MEO2MA pad, the imiquimod-MEO2MA pad can reduce cell viability to about 32% in 3 days. Therefore, the developed imiquimod-MEO2MA hydrogel dressing can decrease the proliferation of keloid fibroblasts and has a highly potential to be utilised for the keloid therapy application.

1. Introduction 1
1.1. Background 1
1.1.1 Wound repair mechanisms 1
1.1.2. Keloid 4
1.1.3. Traditional treatment for keloid 6
1.3. Research purpose 8
2. Material and Method 12
2.1. Preparation of MEO2MA hydrogel samples 12
2.2. Preliminary study of MEO2MA hydrogel properties 14
2.2.1 Lower critical solution temperature of MEO2MA hydrogel 15
2.2.2. Characterisation of swelling and deswelling 15
2.2.3. Characterisation of deswelling property 17
2.2.4. Thermal properties 17
2.3 Fabrication of imiquimod-MEO2MA hydrogel 18
2.3.1 Imiquimod loading 19
2.3.2 Study of imiquimod releasing profile 19
2.4. Performance evaluation of fabricated imiquimod-MEO2MA hydrogel 21
3. Result and discussion 23
3.1. Fabricated MEO2MA hydrogels 23
3.2. Characterisations of MEO2MA hydrogel 24
3.2.1. Measurements of the LCST 24
3.2.2. Swelling profiles of the MEO2MA hydrogels 27
3.2.3. Deswelling profiles of the MEO2MA hydrogels 30
3.2.3. Thermal properties 33
3.3. Study of imiquimod loading and releasing 34
3.3.1. Imiquimod loading profile 34
3.3.2. Imiquimod release profile 35
3.4. Characterisation of fabricated imiquimod-MEO2MA hydrogel pad 37
4. Conclusions 39
5. Future Work-Evaluation of hydrogel-fibre composite dressing 41
5.1. Fabrication of the remote-controlled electrospinning machine 42
5.1.1 Mechanical Structure of Electrospinning Machine 42
5.1.2. Remote-Controlled System 44
5.2. Fabrication of Nanofiber Mesh 45
5.2.1. Characterisations of fabricated imiquimod-PCL fibre meshes 45
5.3. Evaluation of hydrogel-fibre composite dressing 48
6. Reference 49
7. Appendix 53
7.1.Conference paper 53

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