Patent ID: 8083967

Claim:
A process for producing a gel comprising a step of dissolving a water-soluble polymer in water or an aqueous solution containing a salt(s) to prepare a water-soluble polymer solution and a step of dialyzing said polymer solution in an aqueous solution containing a chemical crosslinking agent, thereby obtaining the gel composed mainly of the water-soluble polymer and having a liquid crystal structure; wherein said water-soluble polymer is one or two or more polymers selected from the group consisting of water-soluble biopolymers, derivatives of these water-soluble biopolymers and water-soluble synthesized polymers, and said water-soluble biopolymers are one or two or more polymers selected from the group consisting of nucleic acids, polysaccharides, proteins, modified proteins and polyamino acids, and said water-soluble synthesized polymers are one or two or more polymers selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol, polyacrylic acid and polystyrene sulfonic acid; wherein said chemical crosslinking agent is one or two or more selected from the group consisting of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether and epichlorohydrin; and wherein the step of obtaining said gel having the liquid crystal structure comprises a step of filling and sealing the polymer solution in a dialysis tube composed of a semipermeable membrane, a step of forming a cylindrical gel having a concentric multilayered structure when a cross section perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the tube is observed, in the tube, by repeating transferring the tube together with the above aqueous solution to a second incubator in which the temperature is kept lower than in a first incubator and dialyzing the polymer solution in the tube in the second incubator and further transferring again the tube together with the above aqueous solution to the first incubator and dialyzing the polymer solution in the tube in the first incubator, after immersing the tube in which the polymer solution has been filled in the aqueous solution containing the chemical crosslinking agent to dialyze the polymer solution in the tube in the first incubator kept at a predetermined temperature and subsequently, and a step of obtaining a solid-core columnar or hollow-core cylindrical gel by taking out the above gel from the tube and rinsing the gel with the water.