Secondary Photocrosslinking of Injectable Shear‐Thinning Dock‐and‐Lock Hydrogels

• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201200343
• Publication Date: 2013-01-09T05:27:39Z
• Authors: Hoang D. Lu; Danielle E. Soranno; Christopher B. Ro...; Iris L. Kim; Jason A. Burdick
• Keywords: Hydrogels; Photochemical Processes; Rheology; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Abstract Shear‐thinning hydrogels are useful in numerous applications, including as injectable carriers that act scaffolds to support cell and drug therapies. Here, we describe the engineering of a self‐assembling Dock‐and‐Lock (DnL) system forms shear‐thinning using molecular recognition interactions also possess photo‐triggerable secondary crosslinks. These DnL fabricated from peptide‐modified hyaluronic acid (HA) polypeptide precursors, can self‐heal immediately after shear induced flow, cytocompatible, be stabilized through light‐initiated radical polymerization methacrylate functional groups tune gel mechanics erosion kinetics. Secondary crosslinked retain self‐adhesive properties exhibit cooperative physical chemical crosslinks with moduli high ∼10 times larger than gels based on crosslinking alone. The extent reaction change dependent whether is incorporated either at terminus peptide or directly HA backbone. Additionally, monitored an fluorophore physical–chemical remain intact solution over months, whereas not covalently erode completely within days. Mesenchymal stem cells increased viability when cultured physical– gels, compared those these may additionally tuned by adjusting component compositions, which allows wide range constructed for use.