Synthesis and characterization of hyperbranched polyglycerol hydrogels

Hyperbranched polyglycerol (HyPG; M(n) 2000g/mol) was derivatized with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) in dimethyl sulfoxide using 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)pyridine as a catalyst to obtain methacrylated HyPG (HyPG-MA). The degree of substitution (DS, the percentage of derivatized hydroxyl groups), established by NMR and RP-HPLC, was fully controlled in the range of 0.7-70 by varying the molar ratio of GMA to HyPG in the reaction mixture. This indicates that for e.g. a DS of 28, 9 out of the 32 hydroxyl groups of a HyPG molecule were esterified with methacryloyl groups. Under the selected conditions, the reaction reached an equilibrium within 4h. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that under the applied conditions the reaction was reversible. Hydrogels were obtained by crosslinking HyPG-MA in aqueous solutions using potassium peroxodisulfate (KPS) and N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) as initiator and catalyst, respectively. Within 10min, 99% of the methacryloyl groups were polymerized. Rheological analysis showed that the storage modulus of these gels could be tailored by varying the concentration of HyPG-MA in the aqueous solution as well as by the DS. Moreover, the obtained hydrogels have a limited swelling capacity indicating that rather dimensionally stable networks were obtained. As an alternative for radical polymerization with KPS and TEMED, the HyPG-MA could also be crosslinked by photopolymerization using Irgacure 2959 as photoinitiator. A methacrylate conversion of 99% was obtained within 3min of illumination. As for the gels prepared with KPS and TEMED, networks formed by photopolymerization also had a high shear storage modulus and showed limited swelling. Hydrogels based on HyPG have great potential as drug delivery matrices and for tissue engineering purposes.