Short-range and long-range cross-linking effects of polygenipin on gelatin-based composite materials

Genipin is an ideal cross-linking agent in biomedical applications, which can undergo ring-opening polymerization in alkaline condition. The polygenipin can create short-range and long-range intermolecular cross-linking between protein chains. In this article, the polygenipin with different degree of polymerization was successfully prepared and used to fix gelatin composite materials. The short-range and long-range cross-linking effects of polygenipin were systematically studied. The results show that the composite materials present porous structure with tunable pore sizes in the gel state, which can be easily controlled by adjusting the degree of polymerization of polygenipin. Long-range cross-linking can increase the pore size of the gel. However, during the drying process, the composite films cross-linked by polygenipin with higher degree of polymerization shrank to smaller size to create more compact structure, resulting in the improvement of water resistance properties, thermal stability, tensile strength, and darker color for the composite films. It is interesting that the composite films can partly swell to the original gel structure when in contact with water and saturated water vapor. All the composite films have excellent barrier properties against UV light. However, the compatibility of gelatin and polygenipin is reduced when the degree of polymerization of polygenipin increases to a certain extent, which will result in the formation of phase separation structure. The obtained composite films are ideal candidates for food and pharmaceutical packaging materials. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2712-2722, 2016.