Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 6, 2026
13:46
A Facile and Eco-friendly Route to Fabricate PolyLactic Acid Scaffolds with Graded Pore Size
Published on: October 17, 2016
8.1K
Monosaccharide-responsive phenylboronate-polyol cell scaffolds for cell sheet and tissue engineering applications
Rachamalla Maheedhar Reddy1, Akshay Srivastava, Ashok Kumar
1Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India.
Plos One
|October 30, 2013
Summary
Researchers developed novel smart scaffolds that change from gel to liquid in response to simple sugars. This breakthrough in regenerative medicine allows for easy cell recovery and shows potential for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications.
Area of Science:
- Biomaterials Science
- Polymer Chemistry
- Regenerative Medicine
Background:
- Analyte-responsive smart polymeric materials are crucial for regenerative medicine.
- Phenylboronate copolymers form gels with polyols under alkaline conditions, but monosaccharides can solubilize these gels.
- Developing materials responsive at physiological pH is a key challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate phenylboronate-polyol interactions at physiological pH for monosaccharide-responsive degradable scaffolds.
- To create novel hydrogel and cryogel scaffolds using amine-assisted interactions at neutral pH.
- To explore the potential of these scaffolds in cell and tissue engineering applications.
Main Methods:
- Utilized amine-assisted phenylboronate-polyol interactions to synthesize hydrogel and cryogel scaffolds.
- Investigated the gel-sol phase transformability of the scaffolds in response to monosaccharides.
- Conducted in vitro cell culture studies to assess cell adhesion, viability, and proliferation.
- Demonstrated fructose-induced gel degradation for cell recovery.
Main Results:
- Developed novel hydrogel and cryogel scaffolds exhibiting monosaccharide-inducible gel-sol phase transformability at neutral pH.
- Confirmed scaffold support for cell adhesion, viability, and proliferation in vitro.
- Successfully utilized fructose-induced degradation to recover cultured cells from hydrogels.
- Cryogels exhibited an open macroporous structure and enhanced mechanical properties.
Conclusions:
- Novel phase-transformable phenylboronate-polyol based scaffolds show significant potential for cell sheet and tissue engineering.
- The scaffolds' monosaccharide responsiveness at physiological pH is advantageous for cell immobilization, spheroid culture, saccharide recognition, and analyte-responsive drug delivery.
