Issue 31, 2024

Engineering poly(dehydroalanine)-based gels via droplet-based microfluidics: from bulk to microspheres

Abstract

Biomedical applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and functional surface coating rely on switchable adsorption and desorption of specialized guest molecules. Poly(dehydroalanine), a polyzwitterion containing pH-dependent positive and negative charges, shows promise for such reversible loading, especially when integrated into a gel network. Herein, we present the fabrication of poly(dehydroalanine)-derived gels of different size scales and evaluate them with respect to their practical use in biomedicine. Already existing protocols for bulk gelation were remodeled to derive suitable reaction conditions for droplet-based microfluidic synthesis. Depending on the layout of the microfluidic chip, microgels with a size of approximately 30 μm or 200 μm were obtained, whose crosslinking density can be increased by implementing a multi-arm crosslinker. We analyzed the effects of the crosslinker species on composition, permeability, and softness and show that the microgels exhibit advantageous properties inherent to zwitterionic polymer systems, including high hydrophilicity as well as pH- and ionic strength-sensitivity. We demonstrate pH-regulated uptake and release of fluorescent model dyes before testing the adsorption of a small antimicrobial peptide, LL-37. Quantification of the peptide accommodated within the microgels reveals the impact of size and crosslinking density of the microgels. Biocompatibility of the microgels was validated by cell tests.

Graphical abstract: Engineering poly(dehydroalanine)-based gels via droplet-based microfluidics: from bulk to microspheres

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jun 2024
Accepted
17 Jul 2024
First published
25 Jul 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2024,20, 6231-6246

Engineering poly(dehydroalanine)-based gels via droplet-based microfluidics: from bulk to microspheres

H. F. Mathews, T. Çeper, T. Speen, C. Bastard, S. Bulut, M. I. Pieper, F. H. Schacher, L. De Laporte and A. Pich, Soft Matter, 2024, 20, 6231 DOI: 10.1039/D4SM00676C

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