Photo-crosslinkable, biomimetic, and thermo-sensitive pluronic grafted hyaluronic acid copolymers for injectable delivery of chondrocytes

Hyukjin Lee, Tae Gwan Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hyaluronic acid (HA) grafted with Pluronic F127 copolymer was used as biomimetic hydrogels for cell delivery. The graft copolymer was synthesized by conjugating amine end-capped Pluronic F127 to carboxylic groups of HA using coupling agents. The synthesized HA-g-Pluronic exhibited thermo-sensitive sol-gel transition behaviors over the temperature range of 20-40°C. HA-g-Pluronic copolymers with vinyl groups were photo-crosslinked to prepare more robust hydrogels for cell cultivation. For improved cellular adhesion and proliferation, cell adhesive peptide (Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)) was additionally conjugated to the HA backbone. The resultant thermo-sensitive, photocrosslinkable, and RGD modified HA-g-Pluronic copolymers were used to encapsulate and cultivate bovine chondrocytes in vitro. A tissue containing cartilage-like components such as GAG and type II collagen was successfully produced within the hydrogels, indicating that the synthesized HA-g-Pluronic copolymers can be potentially used as an injectable cell carrier.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)797-806
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A
Volume88
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Chondrocytes
  • Hyaluronic acid
  • Injectable
  • Pluronic
  • Temperature-sensitive

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