Advanced Functional Materials
Advanced Functional Materials
5 years ago

Covalently Adaptable Elastin-Like Protein–Hyaluronic Acid (ELP–HA) Hybrid Hydrogels with Secondary Thermoresponsive Crosslinking for Injectable Stem Cell Delivery

Covalently Adaptable Elastin-Like Protein–Hyaluronic Acid (ELP–HA) Hybrid Hydrogels with Secondary Thermoresponsive Crosslinking for Injectable Stem Cell Delivery
Huiyuan Wang, Sarah C. Heilshorn, Fan Yang, Annika Enejder, Alexandra Paul, Lei Cai, Danqing Zhu
Shear-thinning, self-healing hydrogels are promising vehicles for therapeutic cargo delivery due to their ability to be injected using minimally invasive surgical procedures. An injectable hydrogel using a novel combination of dynamic covalent crosslinking with thermoresponsive engineered proteins is presented. Ex situ at room temperature, rapid gelation occurs through dynamic covalent hydrazone bonds by simply mixing two components: hydrazine-modified elastin-like protein (ELP) and aldehyde-modified hyaluronic acid. This hydrogel provides significant mechanical protection to encapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells during syringe needle injection and rapidly recovers after injection to retain the cells homogeneously within a 3D environment. In situ, the ELP undergoes a thermal phase transition, as confirmed by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy observation of dense ELP thermal aggregates. The formation of the secondary network reinforces the hydrogel and results in a tenfold slower erosion rate compared to a control hydrogel without secondary thermal crosslinking. This improved structural integrity enables cell culture for three weeks postinjection, and encapsulated cells maintain their ability to differentiate into multiple lineages, including chondrogenic, adipogenic, and osteogenic cell types. Together, these data demonstrate the promising potential of ELP–HA hydrogels for injectable stem cell transplantation and tissue regeneration. Shear-thinning and self-healing hydrogels containing protein-engineered elastin-like protein and hyaluronic acid are fabricated through dynamic covalent crosslinking, followed by thermoresponsive physical crosslinking for reinforcement and enhanced stability. These hydrogels have highly tunable stiffness, provide delivered stem cells significant mechanical protection, and maintain the cells after delivery in a 3D environment that supports further differentiation.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201605609

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.