Kim, H.-J.; Cho, S.; Oh, S.J.; Shin, S.G.; Ryu, H.W.; Jeong, J.H. Tuning the Hydrophobicity of a Hydrogel Using Self-Assembled Domains of Polymer Cross-Linkers. Materials2019, 12, 1635.
Kim, H.-J.; Cho, S.; Oh, S.J.; Shin, S.G.; Ryu, H.W.; Jeong, J.H. Tuning the Hydrophobicity of a Hydrogel Using Self-Assembled Domains of Polymer Cross-Linkers. Materials 2019, 12, 1635.
Kim, H.-J.; Cho, S.; Oh, S.J.; Shin, S.G.; Ryu, H.W.; Jeong, J.H. Tuning the Hydrophobicity of a Hydrogel Using Self-Assembled Domains of Polymer Cross-Linkers. Materials2019, 12, 1635.
Kim, H.-J.; Cho, S.; Oh, S.J.; Shin, S.G.; Ryu, H.W.; Jeong, J.H. Tuning the Hydrophobicity of a Hydrogel Using Self-Assembled Domains of Polymer Cross-Linkers. Materials 2019, 12, 1635.
Abstract
Hydrogels incorporated with hydrophobic motifs have received considerable attention to recapitulate the cellular microenvironments, specifically for the bio-mineralization of a 3D matrix. Introduction of hydrophobic motifs into a hydrogel often results in irregular arrangement of the motifs, and further phase separation of hydrophobic domains, but limited efforts have been made to resolve this challenge in the hydrophobically-modified hydrogel. Therefore, this study presents an advanced integrative strategy to incorporate hydrophobic domains regularly in a hydrogel by self-assembling of polymer cross-linkers, building blocks of a hydrogel. Self-assemblies between polymer cross-linkers were examined as micro-domains to incorporate hydrophobic motifs in a hydrogel. The self-assembled structures in a pre-gelled solution were confirmed with the fluorescence analysis and the hydrophobicity of a hydrogel could be tuned by incorporating the motifs in a controlled manner. Overall, the results of this study would greatly serve to tuning performance of a wide array of hydrophobically-modified hydrogels in drug delivery, cell therapies and tissue engineering.
Keywords
hydrogel; hydrophobicity; self-assembly; degree of swelling
Subject
Chemistry and Materials Science, Materials Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
