Enzymatic Methods for Assembling and Modifying Hydrogel Biomaterials

Enzymatic reactions offer many advantages for hydrogel synthesis and modification, due to their gentle reaction conditions, biocompatibility, and diversity of substrates.

In this review, we examine the current body of literature through databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science.

Various enzyme classes have been utilized for hydrogel assembly and disassembly, including transglutaminases, oxidoreductases, transpeptidases, and proteinases. The enzymatic substrates can be readily included in peptide precursors and/or appended onto synthetic polymers. We discuss the benefits and limitations of each system, with a focus on ease of use/synthesis, accessibility, and financial considerations.

Enzymes are frequently utilized to modify both natural and synthetic biomaterials. For developing more advanced, stimuli-responsive platforms, "biologically invisible" enzymes such as sortases should be leveraged to not interfere with native processes and/or the mammalian proteome.

Enzymes, proteins that act as biological catalysts, are an important tool for making and breaking down hydrogels, or water-swollen polymeric networks, for various biomedical applications. In particular, these techniques have seen great usage for modeling the tissue environment for lab-based assays.