Highly Reactive Thiol‐Norbornene Photo‐Click Hydrogels: Toward Improved Processability

• DOI: 10.1002/marc.201800181
• Publication Date: 2018-06-11T05:41:19Z
• Authors: Jasper Van Hoorick; Peter Gruber; Marica Markovic; Mélanie Rollot; Geert‐Jan Graulus; Maxime Vagenende; Maximilian Tromayer; Jürgen Van Erps; Hugo Thienpont; José C. Martins; Stefan Baudis; Aleksandr Ovsianikov; Peter Dubruel; Sandra Van Vlierb...
• Keywords: Methacrylamide; Norbornene; Gelatin; Surface Modification; Biocompatibility

Abstract In the present work, gelatin type B is modified with highly reactive norbornene functionalities (Gel‐NB) following a one‐pot synthesis approach to enable subsequent thiol–ene photo‐click crosslinking. The modification strategy displays close control over amount of introduced functionalities. Additionally, Gel‐NB exhibits considerably improved processing capabilities in terms two‐photon polymerization when benchmarked earlier‐reported crosslinkable derivatives (e.g., gelatin‐methacrylamide (Gel‐MOD) and gelatin‐methacrylamide‐aminoethylmethacrylate (Gel‐MOD‐AEMA)). improvement especially apparent minimally required laser power (20 mW vs ≥60 ≥40 (Gel‐MOD‐AEMA) at 100 mm s −1 scan speed) processable concentration range (≥5 w/v% ≥10 (Gel‐MOD/Gel‐MOD‐AEMA)). Furthermore, proposed functionalization scheme maintains excellent biocompatibility cell interactivity gelatin. have potential for straightforward postprocessing “thiol–ene” surface grafting active molecules. As consequence, very promising material toward tissue engineering applications more specifically, biofabrication, presented.