College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Hubei Engineering Center of Natural Polymer-based Medical Materials, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, China.
College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Hubei Engineering Center of Natural Polymer-based Medical Materials, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China; The State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Basic Science of Stomatology (Hubei-MOST) & Key Laboratory for Oral Biomedical Ministry of Education, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Carbohydr Polym. 2021 Mar 15;256:117574. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.117574. Epub 2020 Dec 30.
To meet the demands of various therapeutic tasks, injectable hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties and degradability are highly desired. Herein, we developed an injectable chitin hydrogel system with well-manipulated mechanical properties and degradability through dynamic acylhydrazone crosslinking catalyzed by 4-amino-DL-phenylalanine (Phe-NH). The mechanical properties and degradability of the hydrogels could be easily adjusted by varying the solid content, while their gelation time could be maintained at a constant level (∼130 s) by altering Phe-NH content, thereby ensuring the good injectability of hydrogels. Moreover, the chitin hydrogels showed excellent self-healing capacity with a healing efficiency up to 95 %. Owing to their superior biocompatibility and biodegradability, the chitin hydrogels could support the proliferation and multi-potent differentiations of rat bone marrow-derived stem cells, serving as a beneficial 3D scaffold for stem cell encapsulation and delivery. This work provides a promising injectable delivery vehicle of therapeutic drugs or cells for tissue regenerative medicine.
为了满足各种治疗任务的需求，人们非常希望得到具有可调节机械性能和可降解性的可注射水凝胶。在此，我们通过 4-氨基-DL-苯丙氨酸（Phe-NH）催化的动态酰腙交联，开发了一种具有良好机械性能和可降解性的可注射甲壳素水凝胶系统。通过改变固体含量，可以轻松调节水凝胶的机械性能和降解性，而通过改变 Phe-NH 含量，可以将水凝胶的凝胶时间保持在恒定水平（约 130 s），从而确保水凝胶具有良好的可注射性。此外，甲壳素水凝胶具有出色的自修复能力，修复效率高达 95%。由于其优异的生物相容性和可降解性，甲壳素水凝胶可以支持大鼠骨髓来源干细胞的增殖和多能分化，作为干细胞包封和递送的有益 3D 支架。这项工作为组织再生医学中的治疗药物或细胞的可注射递送载体提供了一种有前途的方法。
