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Published April 2013 | public
Conference Paper

Engineering the mechanical properties of protein-based hydrogels prepared by thiol-maleimide chemistry

Abstract

Genetic engineering methods were applied to design and biosynthesis of telechelic proteins from elastin- and fibronectin-derived repeating units. The telechelic proteins bearing terminal thiols could either undergo chain-extension with bis-maleimidefunctionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (MAL-PEG-MAL) or crosslinking with tetrakismaleimide- functionalized 4-arm star PEG (star-PEG-MAL). The latter leads to proteinbased hydrogels that are transparent, uniform, and highly extensible. The gelation time ranges from several minutes to a few hours depending on the free-thiol content, the protein wt. percentage, and tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine concn. The mech. properties of the gel depend on the protein content and the cross-linker concn. and can be further tuned by using a mixt. of MAL-PEG-MAL and star-PEG-MAL for crosslinking. The water contents of the hydrogels are high, esp. after swelling. The results suggest its promising application for cell encapsulation and 3D cell culture in tissue engineering.

Additional Information

© 2013 American Chemical Society

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023