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Updated: May 11, 2026
Gelatin Methacryloyl Granular Hydrogel Scaffolds: High-throughput Microgel Fabrication, Lyophilization, Chemical Assembly, and 3D Bioprinting
Published on: December 9, 2022
Chemical hydrogels based on a hyaluronic acid-graft-α-elastin derivative as potential scaffolds for tissue
Fabio Salvatore Palumbo1, Giovanna Pitarresi, Calogero Fiorica
1Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari e Biomolecolari, Sezione di Chimica e Tecnologie Farmaceutiche, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi 32, 90123, Palermo, Italy.
Abstract:
In this work hyaluronic acid (HA) functionalized with ethylenediamine (EDA) has been employed to graft α-elastin. In particular a HA-EDA derivative bearing 50 mol% of pendant amino groups has been successfully employed to produce the copolymer HA-EDA-g-α-elastin containing 32% w/w of protein. After grafting with α-elastin, remaining free amino groups reacted with ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDGE) for producing chemical hydrogels, proposed as scaffolds for tissue engineering. Swelling degree, resistance to chemical and enzymatic hydrolysis, as well as preliminary biological properties of HA-EDA-g-α-elastin/EGDGE scaffold have been evaluated and compared with a HA-EDA/EGDGE scaffold. The presence of α-elastin grafted to HA-EDA improves attachment, viability and proliferation of primary rat dermal fibroblasts and human umbilical artery smooth muscle cells. Biological performance of HA-EDA-g-α-elastin/EGDGE scaffold resulted comparable to that of a commercial collagen type I sponge (Antema®), chosen as a positive control.
