Polyamide Nanogels from Generally Recognized as Safe Components and Their Toxicity in Mouse Preimplantation Embryos

Safe delivery systems that can not only encapsulate hydrophobic drug molecules, but also release them in response to specific triggers are important in several therapeutic and biomedical applications. In this paper, we have designed a nanogel based on molecules that are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). We have shown that the resultant polymeric nanogels exhibit responsive molecular release and also show high in vitro cellular viability on HEK 293T, HeLa, MCF 7, and A549 cell lines. The toxicity of these nanogels was further evaluated with a highly sensitive assay using mouse preimplantation embryo development, where blastocysts were formed after 4 days of in vitro culture, and live pups were born when morulae/early blastocysts were transferred to the uteri of surrogate recipients. Our results indicate that these nanogels are nontoxic during mammalian development and do not alter normal growth or early embryo success rate.