Photodegradable Hydrogels for Dynamic Tuning of Physical and Chemical Properties

TLDR

Photodegradable gels that allow real‑time manipulation of material properties or chemistry provide dynamic environments to study how material regulation affects live cell function and have potential applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. The authors aim to develop photodegradable PEG‑based hydrogels that enable remote manipulation of gel properties in situ. They achieve this by rapidly polymerizing cytocompatible macromers to form the hydrogels. Postgelation control of the gel properties enabled temporal changes, creation of arbitrarily shaped features, on‑demand release of pendant functionality, photodegraded channels that permit cell migration, and biochemical composition variations that influence chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated stem cells.

Abstract

We report a strategy to create photodegradable poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogels through rapid polymerization of cytocompatible macromers for remote manipulation of gel properties in situ. Postgelation control of the gel properties was demonstrated to introduce temporal changes, creation of arbitrarily shaped features, and on-demand pendant functionality release. Channels photodegraded within a hydrogel containing encapsulated cells allow cell migration. Temporal variation of the biochemical gel composition was used to influence chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated stem cells. Photodegradable gels that allow real-time manipulation of material properties or chemistry provide dynamic environments with the scope to answer fundamental questions about material regulation of live cell function and may affect an array of applications from design of drug delivery vehicles to tissue engineering systems.