Patent ID: 7651683

Claim:
A method of preparing a nontoxic, viscoelastic material for tissue engineering, wherein the viscoelastic material comprises a polymerized emulsion having two discrete organic and aqueous phases, the method comprising: a) preparing a nontoxic, inverse (“water-in-oil”) fluid emulsion comprising two discrete phases: i) a continuous hydrophobic organic (“oil”) phase, comprising one or more reactive, ethylenically unsaturated, polymerizable acrylate monomers, and at least one activator- controlled polymerization initiator; and ii) a discontinuous aqueous (“water”) phase comprising water, wherein the aqueous phase is present in the emulsion in an amount of about 0.5% to about 90% weight/weight of the organic phase; and b) polymerizing the fluid emulsion in situ to form the viscoelastic material, wherein the viscoelastic material comprises: i) a continuous hydrophobic organic phase comprised of polymerized ethylenically unsaturated acrylate monomers; ii) a discontinuous aqueous (“water”) phase comprising water.