Zhao Shouwei, Chen Zhiwei, Dong Yaqi, Lu Wenhui, Zhu Deyi
Faculty of Light Industry, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China.
Gels. 2022 Feb 26;8(3):146. doi: 10.3390/gels8030146.
Mechanically enhanced gelatin-based composite hydrogels were developed in the presence of functionalized cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) employing microbial transglutaminase (mTG) as a binding agent. In this work, the surfaces of CNCs were grafted with (3-Aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane with a NH functional group, and the success of CNCs' modification was verified by FTIR spectroscopy and XPS. The higher degree of modification in CNCs resulted in more covalent cross-linking and dispersibility within the gelatin matrix; thus, the as-prepared hydrogels showed significantly improved mechanical properties and thermo-stability, as revealed by dynamic rheological analysis, uniaxial compression tests and SEM. The biocompatibility of the obtained hydrogels was evaluated by the MTT method, and it was found that the grafted CNCs had no obvious inhibitory effect on cell proliferation. Hence, the mechanically enhanced gelatin-based hydrogels might have great potential in biomedical applications.
在功能化纤维素纳米晶体（CNCs）存在的情况下，以微生物转谷氨酰胺酶（mTG）作为粘合剂，制备了机械增强的明胶基复合水凝胶。在这项工作中，用含NH官能团的（3-氨丙基）三甲氧基硅烷接枝CNCs的表面，并通过傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和X射线光电子能谱（XPS）验证了CNCs改性的成功。CNCs中较高的改性程度导致在明胶基质内有更多的共价交联和分散性；因此，如动态流变分析、单轴压缩试验和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）所示，所制备的水凝胶显示出显著改善的机械性能和热稳定性。通过MTT法评估所得水凝胶的生物相容性，发现接枝的CNCs对细胞增殖没有明显的抑制作用。因此，机械增强的明胶基水凝胶在生物医学应用中可能具有巨大潜力。
