Macromolecular Bioscience 2016-01-01

Thiol-ene Photocrosslinking of Cytocompatible Resilin-Like Polypeptide-PEG Hydrogels.

Christopher L McGann, Rebekah E Dumm, Anna K Jurusik, Ishnoor Sidhu, Kristi L Kiick

Index: Macromol. Biosci. 16 , 129-38, (2016)

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Abstract

A range of chemical strategies have been used for crosslinking recombinant polypeptide hydrogels, although only a few have employed photocrosslinking approaches. Here, we capitalize on the novel insect protein, resilin, and the versatility of click reactions to introduce a resilin-like polypeptide (RLP) that is capable of photoinitiated thiol-ene crosslinking. Lysine residues of the RLP were functionalized with norbornene acid as confirmed via 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The RLPNs were subsequently photocrosslinked with multi-arm PEG thiols in the presence of a photoinitiator to form elastic hybrid hydrogels. The crosslinking reaction and resulting RLP-PEG networks demonstrated cytocompatibility with human mesenchymal stem cells in both 2D cell-adhesion and 3D photoencapsulation studies. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.