title: Self-reinforcement and protein sustained delivery of hyaluronan hydrogel by tailoring a dually cross-linked network.
abstract: A series of self-reinforcing hyaluronan hydrogels were developed to improve mechanical properties and protein sustained delivery thanks to a dually cross-linked network. Hyaluronan gel particles (HGPs, 1-5 μm in diameter) with different cross-linking densities, i.e. HGPs-1.5, HGPs-3 and HGPs-15, were prepared in an inverse emulsion system and used as the reinforcing phase after glycidyl methacrylation, while glycidyl methacrylated hyaluronan with a substitution degree of 45.2% was synthesized as the matrix phase. These two phases were cross-linked under ultraviolet irradiation to form self-reinforcing hyaluronan hydrogels (srHAs) that showed typical cross-linked structure of HGPs connecting the matrix phase by cross-section observation. In comparison to hyaluronan bulk gels and their blends with HGPs, srHAs distinctly enhanced the mechanical properties and BSA long-term sustained delivery, especially srHA-1.5 showed the highest compressive modulus of 220±15 kPa and the slowest BSA delivery (67% release at 14 d). The 3T3 fibroblast cell culture showed that all the srHAs had no cytotoxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Chunhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Guoguang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Xinghui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China; Engineering Research Center of Artificial Organs and Materials, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China; Engineering Research Center of Artificial Organs and Materials, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China; Engineering Research Center of Artificial Organs and Materials, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510632, China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China; Engineering Research Center of Artificial Organs and Materials, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510632, China. Electronic address: jhzhao@jnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jianhao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D020100:Hydrogels; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D066244:Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels; D011506:Proteins; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid
keywords: Dually cross-linked network; Hyaluronan; Hydrogel; Self-reinforcement; Sustained delivery