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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Preparation and In Vitro Characterization of Dendrimer-based Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: December 4, 2016
Superelastic and pH-Responsive Degradable Dendrimer Cryogels Prepared by Cryo-aza-Michael Addition Reaction
1Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, United States.
Abstract:
Dendrimers exhibit super atomistic features by virtue of their well-defined discrete quantized nanoscale structures. Here, we show that hyperbranched amine-terminated polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer G4.0 reacts with linear polyethylene glycol (PEG) diacrylate (575 g/mol) via the aza-Michael addition reaction at a subzero temperature (-20 °C), namely cryo-aza-Michael addition, to form a macroporous superelastic network, i.e., dendrimer cryogel. Dendrimer cryogels exhibit biologically relevant Young's modulus, high compression elasticity and super resilience at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the dendrimer cryogels exhibit excellent rebound performance and do not show significant stress relaxation under cyclic deformation over a wide temperature range (-80 to 100 °C). The obtained dendrimer cryogels are stable at acidic pH but degrade quickly at physiological pH through self-triggered degradation. Taken together, dendrimer cryogels represent a new class of scaffolds with properties suitable for biomedical applications.
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