Tuning the thermosensitive properties of hybrid collagen peptide-polymer hydrogels.

A hybrid hydrogel based on collagen-mimetic peptides has been designed with tunable thermosensitive properties. By changing the number of POG repeats within the collagen peptide sequence, the thermal stability of the triple helical physical crosslinks of a peptide-polymer conjugate can be altered, thus tuning the stiffness of the hydrogel as a function of temperature. This report focuses on three different thermally responsive collagen peptide, PEG-based hydrogels and validates their use as stimuli-responsive materials.