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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Engineering a Bilayered Hydrogel to Control ASC Differentiation
Published on: May 25, 2012
Construction of Skin-Adaptable Slide-Ring Hydrogels Based on Bile Acids Derived Polyrotaxanes for Smart Wound
Wen Huang1,2, Xueru Xiong2,3, Qian Sun2,3,4
1School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
None:
Slide-ring hydrogels (SR-Gel) feature mechano-adaptive networks with exceptional stretchability and skin-adaptability, ideal for smart dressing applications. However, current SR-Gel systems primarily rely on polyrotaxanes fabricated from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and α-cyclodextrins (α-CDs), which typically possess an uncontrollable host-guest coverage ratio. It is therefore crucial to develop efficient construction strategies that enable the fabrication of diverse SR-Gels and broaden their scope and utility. Herein, we designed a polymerizable pseudopolyrotaxane with low host-guest coverage via precise molecular recognition between β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and a bile-acid-derived guest polymer. This precursor was photopolymerized with zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate and N - acryloyl glycinamide to construct a skin-adaptable SR-Gel. The sliding crosslinks provide enhanced chain mobility, endowing the hydrogel with high stretchability, excellent fatigue resistance, and the ability to adapt to wound deformation. Furthermore, levofloxacin-loaded ZIF-8 nanoparticles (ZIF-8@Levo) were incorporated to obtain a conductive composite hydrogel (SR-Gel/ZL), which was not only applied to treat bacterial infections, but could also stimulate and differentiate temperature, blood, and pressure, simultaneously. This work represents the first SR-Gel system constructed from a bile acid/β-CD polyrotaxane. Compared with the traditional PEG/α-CD system, the host-guest ratio can be precisely controlled, and the synthesis steps are simpler, providing a universal molecular model for the development of high-performance slide-ring materials.

