Influence of Hydrophobic Cross-Linkers on Carboxybetaine Copolymer Stimuli Response and Hydrogel Biological Properties
- Vincent HuynhVincent HuynhDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, CanadaMore by Vincent Huynh,
- Alexander H. JesmerAlexander H. JesmerDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, CanadaMore by Alexander H. Jesmer,
- Muhammad M. ShoaibMuhammad M. ShoaibDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, CanadaMore by Muhammad M. Shoaib, and
- Ryan G. Wylie*Ryan G. Wylie*E-mail for R.G.W.: [email protected]Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, CanadaMore by Ryan G. Wylie
Abstract

Poly(carboxybetaine) (pCB) hydrogels do not elicit a foreign body response due to their low-fouling properties, making them ideal implantable materials for in vivo drug and cell delivery. Current reported pCB hydrogels are cross-linked using cytotoxic UV-initiated radical polymerization limiting clinical and in vivo translation. For clinical translation, we require in situ and biorthogonal cross-linking of pCB hydrogels that are both low-fouling and low-swelling to limit nonspecific interactions and minimize tissue damage, respectively. To this end, we synthesized carboxybetaine (CB) random copolymers (molecular weight (MW): ∼7–33 kDa; Đ: 1.1–1.36) containing azide (pCB-azide) or strained alkyne (Dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO); pCB-DBCO) that rapidly cross-link upon mixing. Unlike CB homopolymers and other CB copolymers studied, high DBCO content pCB-DBCO30 (30% DBCO mole fraction) is thermoresponsive with a upper critical solution temperature (UCST; cloud point of ∼20 °C at 50 g/L) in water due to electrostatic associations. Due to the antipolyelectrolyte effect, pCB-DBCO30 is salt-responsive and is soluble even at low temperatures in 5 M NaCl, which prevents zwitterion electrostatic associations. pCB-azide and pCB-DBCO with 0.05 to 0.16 cross-linker mole fractions rapidly formed 10 wt % hydrogels upon mixing that were low-swelling (increase of ∼10% in wet weight) while remaining low-fouling to proteins (∼10–20 μg cm–2) and cells, making them suitable for in vivo applications. pCB-X31 hydrogels composed of pCB-azide32 and pCB-DBCO30 formed opaque gels in water and physiological conditions that shrunk to ∼70% of their original wet weight due to pCB-DBCO30’s greater hydrophobicity and interchain electrostatic interactions, which promotes nonspecific protein adsorption (∼35 μg cm–2) and cell binding. Once formed, the electrostatic interactions in pCB-X31 hydrogels are not fully reversible with heat or salt. Although, pCB-X31 hydrogels are transparent when initially prepared in 5 M NaCl. This is the first demonstration of a thermo- and salt-responsive CB copolymer that can tune hydrogel protein and cell fouling properties.
Cited By
This article is cited by 3 publications.
- Vincent Huynh, Ryan Gavin Wylie. Displacement Affinity Release of Antibodies from Injectable Hydrogels. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2019, 11 (34) , 30648-30660. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b12572
- Vincent Huynh, Anthony D D’Angelo, Ryan G Wylie. Tunable degradation of low-fouling carboxybetaine-hyaluronic acid hydrogels for applications in cell encapsulation. Biomedical Materials 2019, 14 (5) , 055003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-605X/ab2bde
- Muhammad M. Shoaib, Vincent Huynh, Yousuf Shad, Rashik Ahmed, Alexander H. Jesmer, Giuseppe Melacini, Ryan G. Wylie. Controlled degradation of low-fouling poly(oligo(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate) hydrogels. RSC Advances 2019, 9 (33) , 18978-18988. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9RA03441B




