The supramolecular hydrogel based on hyperbranched polyglycerol and dextran as a scaffold for living cells and drug delivery

Abstract

Hydrogels are good candidates to satisfy many needs for functional and tunable biomaterials. How to precisely control the gel structure and functions is crucial for the construction of sophisticated soft biomaterials comprising supramolecular hydrogels, which not only facilitate the impact of the surrounding environment on a unique biological function occurring, but also manipulate various biological phenomena. Here, we designed and synthesized a new supramolecular hydrogel (AD-g-HPG/CD-g-Dex) based on hyperbranched polyglycerol and dextran using the association of β-cyclodextran with adamantine. AD-g-HPG/CD-g-Dex hydrogel with the typical porous structure and ideal three-dimensional network showed a rapid increase in equilibrium of swelling, which was up to 185% after 2 min incubation. The hydrogel could encapsulate the protein drug and controlled drug release by modifying the compositions. Importantly, the viability of NIH 3T3 cells was more than 80% after treatment with AD-g-HPG/CD-g-Dex hydrogel, displaying good cytocompatibility. Taken together, we confirmed the feasibility of cytocompatible AD-g-HPG/CD-g-Dex hydrogel as a platform scaffold with controlled drug delivery and other various tissue engineering applications.