Inducing an LCST in hydrophilic polysaccharides via engineered macromolecular hydrophobicity.

ABSTRACT: Thermoresponsive polysaccharide-based materials with tunable transition temperatures regulating phase-separated microdomains offer substantial opportunities in tissue engineering and biomedical applications. To develop novel synthetic thermoresponsive polysaccharides, we employed versatile chemical routes to attach hydrophobic adducts to the backbone of hydrophilic dextran and gradually increased the hydrophobicity of the dextran chains to engineer phase separation. Conjugating methacrylate moieties to the dextran backbone yielded a continuous increase in macromolecular hydrophobicity that induced a reversible phase transition whose lower critical solution temperature can be modulated via variations in polysaccharide concentration, molecular weight, degree of methacrylation, ionic strength

SUBMITTER: Bubli SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10492858 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature