TY - JOUR
T1 - Dopant-Free Hydrogels with Intrinsic Photoluminescence and Biodegradable Properties
AU - Tsou, Yung Hao
AU - Zhang, Xue Qing
AU - Bai, Xin
AU - Zhu, He
AU - Li, Zhongyu
AU - Liu, Yanlan
AU - Shi, Jinjun
AU - Xu, Xiaoyang
N1 - Funding Information:
Y.-H. Tsou and X.-Q. Zhang contributed equally to this work. The financial support coming from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) startup funding, New Jersey Health Foundation (PC102-17), and NSF Innovation Corps (1723667) program is gratefully acknowledged. X.-Q. Zhang acknowledges the support from Thousand Talents Plan for Young Professionals.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
PY - 2018/8/22
Y1 - 2018/8/22
N2 - Photoluminescent hydrogels that function as both injectable scaffolds and fluorescent imaging probes hold great potential for therapeutics delivery and tissue engineering. Current fluorescent hydrogels are fabricated by either conjugating or doping a fluorescent dye, fluorescent protein, lanthanide chelate, or quantum dot into polymeric hydrogel matrix. Their biomedical applications are severely limited due to drawbacks such as photostability, carcinogenesis, and toxicity associated with the above-mentioned dopants. Here, a successful development of dopant-free photoluminescent hydrogels in situ formed by crosslinking of biocompatible polymer precursors is reported, which can be synthesized by incorporating an amino acid to a citric acid based polyester oligomer followed by functionalization of multivalent crosslinking group through a convenient transesterification reaction using Candida Antarctica Lipase B as a catalyst. It is demonstrated that the newly developed hydrogels possess tunable degradation, intrinsic photoluminescence, mechanical properties, and exhibit sustained release of various molecular weight dextrans. In vivo study shows that the hydrogels formed in situ following subcutaneous injection exhibit excellent biocompatibility and emit strong fluorescence under visible light excitation without the need of using any traditional organic dyes. Their in vivo degradation profiles are then depicted by noninvasively monitoring fluorescence intensity of the injected hydrogel implants.
AB - Photoluminescent hydrogels that function as both injectable scaffolds and fluorescent imaging probes hold great potential for therapeutics delivery and tissue engineering. Current fluorescent hydrogels are fabricated by either conjugating or doping a fluorescent dye, fluorescent protein, lanthanide chelate, or quantum dot into polymeric hydrogel matrix. Their biomedical applications are severely limited due to drawbacks such as photostability, carcinogenesis, and toxicity associated with the above-mentioned dopants. Here, a successful development of dopant-free photoluminescent hydrogels in situ formed by crosslinking of biocompatible polymer precursors is reported, which can be synthesized by incorporating an amino acid to a citric acid based polyester oligomer followed by functionalization of multivalent crosslinking group through a convenient transesterification reaction using Candida Antarctica Lipase B as a catalyst. It is demonstrated that the newly developed hydrogels possess tunable degradation, intrinsic photoluminescence, mechanical properties, and exhibit sustained release of various molecular weight dextrans. In vivo study shows that the hydrogels formed in situ following subcutaneous injection exhibit excellent biocompatibility and emit strong fluorescence under visible light excitation without the need of using any traditional organic dyes. Their in vivo degradation profiles are then depicted by noninvasively monitoring fluorescence intensity of the injected hydrogel implants.
KW - biodegradable hydrogels
KW - injectable hydrogels
KW - photoluminescent hydrogels
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U2 - 10.1002/adfm.201802607
DO - 10.1002/adfm.201802607
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85051773767
SN - 1616-301X
VL - 28
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
IS - 34
M1 - 1802607
ER -