Orthogonal click reactions enable the synthesis of ECM-mimetic PEG hydrogels without multi-arm precursors.

ABSTRACT: Click chemistry reactions have become an important tool for synthesizing user-defined hydrogels consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and bioactive peptides for tissue engineering. However, because click crosslinking proceeds via a step-growth mechanism, multi-arm telechelic precursors are required, which has some disadvantages. Here, we report for the first time that this requirement can be circumvented to create PEG-peptide hydrogels solely from linear precursors through the use of two orthogonal click reactions, the thiol-maleimide Michael addition and thiol-norbornene click reaction. The rapid kinetics of both click reactions allowed for quick formation of norbornene-functionalized PEG-peptide block copolymers via Michael addition, which were subsequently photocrosslinked into hydr

SUBMITTER: Jivan F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6368189 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature