Phenol-Hyaluronic Acid Conjugates: Correlation of Oxidative Crosslinking Pathway and Adhesiveness

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural polysaccharide with great biocompatibility for a variety of biomedical applications, such as tissue scaffolds, dermal fillers, and drug-delivery carriers. Despite the medical impact of HA, its poor adhesiveness and short-term in vivo stability limit its therapeutic efficacy. To overcome these shortcomings, a versatile modification strategy for the HA backbone has been developed. This strategy involves tethering phenol moieties on HA to provide both robust adhesiveness and intermolecular cohesion and can be used for oxidative crosslinking of the polymeric chain. However, a lack of knowledge still exists regarding the interchangeable phenolic adhesion and cohesion depending on the type of oxidizing agent used. Here, we reveal the correlation between phenolic adhesion and cohesion upon gelation of two different HA-phenol conjugates, HA-tyramine and HA-catechol, depending on the oxidant. For covalent/non-covalent crosslinking of HA, oxidizing agents, horseradish peroxidase/hydrogen peroxide, chemical oxidants (e.g., base, sodium periodate), and metal ions, were utilized. As a result, HA-catechol showed stronger adhesion properties, whereas HA-tyramine showed higher cohesion properties. In addition, covalent bonds allowed better adhesion compared to that of non-covalent bonds. Our findings are promising for designing adhesive and mechanically robust biomaterials based on phenol chemistry.