| Autor: |
Vaghi L; Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy., Monti M; Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy., Marelli M; Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche 'Giulio Natta', CNR-SCITEC, Sede Fantoli, via Fantoli 16/15, 20138 Milano, Italy., Motto E; Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126 Milano, Italy., Papagni A; Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 55, 20125 Milano, Italy., Cipolla L; Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126 Milano, Italy. |
| Abstrakt: |
Gelatin is a costless polypeptide material of natural origin, able to form hydrogels that are potentially useful in biomaterial scaffold design for drug delivery, cell cultures, and tissue engineering. However, gelatin hydrogels are unstable at physiological conditions, losing their features only after a few minutes at 37 °C. Accordingly, treatments to address this issue are of great interest. In the present work, we propose for the first time the use of bi- and trifunctional tetrazoles, most of them unknown to date, for photoinduced gelatin cross-linking towards the production of physiologically stable hydrogels. Indeed, after UV-B irradiation, aryl tetrazoles generate a nitrilimine intermediate that is reactive towards different functionalities, some of them constitutively present in the amino acid side chains of gelatin. The efficacy of the treatment strictly depends on the structure of the cross-linking agent used, and substantial improved stability was observed by switching from bifunctional to trifunctional cross-linkers. |
