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Fabricating Degradable Thermoresponsive Hydrogels on Multiple Length Scales via Reactive Extrusion, Microfluidics, Self-assembly, and Electrospinning

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Temperature-sensitive biodegradable poly(ethylene glycol).

Jisun Lee¹, Min Kyung Joo, Jinheung Kim

¹Department of Chemistry, Division of Nano Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, South Korea.

Journal of Biomaterials Science. Polymer Edition

|May 21, 2009

Summary

Incorporating disulfide bonds into poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) creates temperature-sensitive and biodegradable polymers. This modification allows for tunable thermal properties in the physiologically relevant 20-40°C range.

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Published on: October 26, 2016

Area of Science:

Polymer Chemistry
Biomaterials Science
Materials Engineering

Background:

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a widely used polymer in biomedical applications.
Developing stimuli-responsive and biodegradable polymers is crucial for advanced drug delivery and tissue engineering.
Existing PEG-based materials often lack inherent biodegradability or precise temperature sensitivity.

Purpose of the Study:

To synthesize temperature-sensitive and biodegradable poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) by incorporating disulfide bonds.
To achieve temperature sensitivity within the physiologically relevant range of 20-40°C.
To investigate the biodegradability of PEG-disulfide polymers in the presence of biomolecules.

Main Methods:

Randomly coupling PEG chains of 400 Da and 600 Da molecular masses via disulfide bonds.
Synthesizing PEG-disulfide polymers with varying molar ratios of PEG (400 Da) disulfide to PEG (600 Da) disulfide.
Measuring the cloud point of polymer aqueous solutions to determine temperature sensitivity.
Assessing the degradation of disulfide bonds in the presence of glutathione.

Main Results:

The incorporation of disulfide bonds imparted temperature sensitivity to PEG.
Adjusting the molar ratio of PEG (400 Da) disulfide to PEG (600 Da) disulfide from 40:60 to 60:40 decreased the cloud point from 35°C to 27°C.
The disulfide bonds were found to degrade in a thiol-concentration-dependent manner in the presence of glutathione.

Conclusions:

Disulfide-crosslinked PEG offers tunable temperature sensitivity in a physiologically relevant range.
The biodegradability of these PEG-disulfide polymers is controllable via thiol concentration.
This approach provides a promising strategy for developing advanced biodegradable and stimuli-responsive biomaterials.