Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street, West Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street, West Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
Carbohydr Polym. 2020 May 15;236:115998. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.115998. Epub 2020 Feb 12.
Starch is an attractive biomaterial given its low cost and high protein repellency, but its use in forming functional hydrogels is limited by its high viscosity and crystallinity. Herein, we demonstrate the use of fully amorphous starch nanoparticles (SNPs) as functional hydrogel building blocks that overcome these challenges. Methacrylation of SNPs enables hydrogel formation via photopolymerization, with the low viscosity of SNPs enabling facile preparation of pre-gel suspensions of up to 35 wt% SNPs relative to <10 wt% with linear starch. Small angle neutron scattering indicates a significantly different microstructure in SNP-based hydrogels compared to linear starch-based hydrogels due to the balance between inter- and intra-particle crosslinks, consistent with SNPs forming denser and stiffer hydrogels. Functionalized SNPs are highly cytocompatible at degree of substitution values <0.25 and, once gelled, can effectively repel cell adhesion. The physicochemical versatility and biological functionality of SNP-based hydrogels offer potential in various applications.
淀粉是一种具有吸引力的生物材料，因为其成本低且对蛋白质具有高排斥性，但由于其高粘度和结晶度，其在形成功能性水凝胶方面的应用受到限制。在此，我们展示了全非晶态淀粉纳米颗粒（SNP）作为功能性水凝胶构建块的用途，这些构建块克服了这些挑战。SNP 的甲基丙烯酰化能够通过光聚合形成水凝胶，由于 SNP 的低粘度，能够轻松制备高达 35wt%SNP 的预凝胶悬浮液，而线性淀粉的比例则低于 10wt%。小角中子散射表明，基于 SNP 的水凝胶与基于线性淀粉的水凝胶具有显著不同的微观结构，这是由于颗粒间和颗粒内交联之间的平衡所致，与 SNP 形成更密集和更硬的水凝胶一致。在取代度值<0.25 的情况下，功能化的 SNP 具有高度的细胞相容性，并且一旦凝胶化，就可以有效地排斥细胞黏附。基于 SNP 的水凝胶的物理化学多功能性和生物学功能为各种应用提供了潜力。
