Photoresponsive Polysaccharide-Based Hydrogels with Tunable Mechanical Properties for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Photoresponsive hydrogels were obtained by coordination of alginate-acrylamide hybrid gels (AlgAam) with ferric ions. The photochemistry of Fe(III)-alginate was used to tune the chemical composition, mechanical properties, and microstructure of the materials upon visible light irradiation. The photochemical treatment also induced changes in the swelling properties and transport mechanism in the gels due to the changes in material composition and microstructure. The AlgAam gels were biocompatible and could easily be dried and rehydrated with no change in mechanical properties. These gels showed promise as scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering, where the photochemical treatment could be used to tune the properties of the material and ultimately change the growth and extracellular matrix production of chondrogenic cells. ATDC5 cells cultured on the hydrogels showed a greater than 2-fold increase in the production of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAG) in the gels irradiated for 90 min compared to the dark controls. Our method provides a simple photochemical tool to postsynthetically control and adjust the chemical and mechanical environment in these gels, as well as the pore microstructure and transport properties. By changing these properties, we could easily access different levels of performance of these materials as substrates for tissue engineering.