Thermosensitivity of N-isopropylacrylamide hydrogels cross-linked with degradable cross-linker

Thermosensitive N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA)-based hydrogels have been prepared using a biodegradable pseudo-peptide (DMTLT, a tri-molecular adduct of tyrosine, lysine, tyrosine) as cross-linker. This new cross-linker provides a similar cross-linking efficiency as N,N' methylenbisacrylamide (BIS) (a standard biostable cross-linker) used as reference. The amount of DMTLT has shown to modulate, in addition to the cross-linking density, the transition temperature (the higher the amount of DMTLT, the lower the transition temperature), as well as the morphology and the whole aqueous behaviour. The incorporation of hydrophilic N,N'-dimethylacrylamide (DMA) increases the transition temperature, as expected. Finally, the matrices have exhibited in aqueous media a well-defined pulsatile behaviour in swelling and release of benzoic acid and dextran as models of ionisable molecules and non-ionisable macromolecules.