Mora-Boza A, Ghebrezadik SG, Leisen JE, García AJ. Rapid and Facile Light-Based Approach to Fabricate Protease-Degradable Poly(ethylene glycol)-norbornene Microgels for Cell Encapsulation.
Adv Healthc Mater 2023;
12:e2300942. [PMID:
37235850 PMCID:
PMC10592588 DOI:
10.1002/adhm.202300942]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Thiol-norbornene photoclickable poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based (PEG-NB) hydrogels are attractive biomaterials for cell encapsulation, drug delivery, and regenerative medicine applications. Although many crosslinking strategies and chemistries have been developed for PEG-NB bulk hydrogels, fabrication approaches of PEG-NB microgels have not been extensively explored. Here, a fabrication strategy for 4-arm amide-linked PEG-NB (PEG-4aNB) microgels using flow-focusing microfluidics for human mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (hMSCs) encapsulation is presented. PEG-4aNB photochemistry allows high-throughput, ultrafast generation, and cost-effective synthesis of monodispersed microgels (diameter 340 ± 18, 380 ± 24, and 420 ± 15 µm, for 6, 8, and 10 wt% of PEG-4aNB, respectively) using an in situ crosslinking methodology in a microfluidic device. PEG-4aNB microgels show in vitro degradability due to the incorporation of a protease-degradable peptide during photocrosslinking and encapsulated cells show excellent viability and metabolic activity for at least 13 days of culture. Furthermore, the secretory profile (i.e., MMP-13, ICAM-1, PD-L1, CXCL9, CCL3/MIP-1, IL-6, IL-12, IL-17E, TNF-α, CCL2/MCP-1) of encapsulated hMSCs shows increased expression in response to IFN-γ stimulation. Collectively, this work shows a versatile and facile approach for the fabrication of protease-degradable PEG-4aNB microgels for cell encapsulation.
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