An injectable hyaluronic acid/PEG hydrogel for cartilage tissue engineering formed by integrating enzymatic crosslinking and Diels-Alder "click chemistry"

作者：Yu Feng; Cao Xiaodong^*; Li Yuli; Zeng Lei; Yuan Bo; Chen Xiaofeng

来源：Polymer Chemistry, 2014, 5(3): 1082-1090.

DOI：10.1039/c3py00869j

• Biological reaction
• Cartilage tissue engineering
• Cross-linking process
• Enzymatic crosslinking
• Hydrogel formation
• Injectable hydrogels
• Injectable materials
• Loading and unloading

The application of enzymatic crosslinking and Diets-Alder (DA) click chemistry for hydrogel formation has recently bloomed, because of the efficient chemical bonding and the mild biological reaction conditions. In this study, an injectable hyaluronic acid/PEG (HA/PEG) hydrogel was successfully fabricated for the first time through integrating two cross-linking processes, including firstly enzymatic crosslinking and subsequent DA click chemistry. The enzymatic crosslinking resulted in a fast gelation of HA/PEG in 5 mm, leading to the formation of an injectable material. In addition, the DA click reaction crosslinking made a hydrogel that has outstanding shape memory and anti-fatigue properties. The storage modulus and breakage strength of the hydrogels were close to 27 kPa and 109.4 kPa, respectively. The compressive strain could reach up to 81.9%. After 10 cycles of a loading and unloading test, the hydrogel still could be loaded by 80 kPa for 1 min and the corresponding deformation could be completely recovered in 1 min after unloading. The ATDC-5 cells were capsulated into the hydrogel bulk in situ and showed high metabolic viability and proliferation. All of these results suggest that the HA/PEG injectable hydrogel formed by integrating the two cross-linking processes has a great potential in cartilage tissue engineering.

• 出版日期2014-2-7
• 单位华南理工大学