Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark.
Small. 2013 Mar 25;9(6):942-50. doi: 10.1002/smll.201201774. Epub 2012 Dec 3.
In this work, bioconjugation techniques are developed to achieve peptide functionalization of poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA, as both a polymer in solution and within microstructured physical hydrogels, in both cases under physiological conditions. PVA is unique in that it is one of very few polymers with excellent biocompatibility and safety and has FDA approval for clinical uses in humans. However, decades of development have documented only scant opportunities in bioconjugation with PVA. As such, materials derived thereof fail to answer the call for functional biomaterials for advanced cell culture and tissue engineering applications. To address these limitations, PVA is synthesized with terminal thiol groups and conjugated with thiolated peptides using PVA in solution. Further, microstructured, surface-adhered PVA physical hydrogels are assembled, the available conjugation sites within the hydrogels are quantified, and quantitative kinetic data are collected on peptide conjugation to the hydrogels. The success of bioconjugation in the gel phase is quantified through the use of a cell-adhesive peptide and visualization of cell adhesion on PVA hydrogels as cell culture substrates. Taken together, the presented data establish a novel paradigm in bioconjugation and functionalization of PVA physical hydrogels. Coupled with an excellent safety profile of PVA, these results deliver a superior biomaterial for diverse biomedical applications.
在这项工作中，开发了生物共轭技术，以实现在生理条件下将肽官能化聚（乙烯醇）（PVA），无论是在溶液中还是在微结构化物理水凝胶中作为聚合物。PVA 的独特之处在于它是极少数具有出色生物相容性和安全性的聚合物之一，并且已获得美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）批准可在人体中用于临床用途。然而，数十年的发展仅记录了与 PVA 进行生物共轭的机会很少。因此，由此衍生的材料未能满足先进细胞培养和组织工程应用对功能性生物材料的需求。为了解决这些限制，用末端巯基合成 PVA 并使用溶液中的 PVA 将其与巯基化肽共轭。此外，组装了微结构化、表面附着的 PVA 物理水凝胶，量化了水凝胶中的可用共轭位点，并收集了关于肽与水凝胶的定量动力学数据。通过使用细胞黏附肽和可视化 PVA 水凝胶作为细胞培养底物上的细胞黏附来量化凝胶相中生物共轭的成功。综上所述，所呈现的数据为 PVA 物理水凝胶的生物共轭和功能化建立了新的范例。再加上 PVA 出色的安全性，这些结果为各种生物医学应用提供了卓越的生物材料。
