A carbohydrate-based hydrogel containing vesicles as responsive non-covalent cross-linkers

Abstract

In this edge article we report the preparation of a supramolecular carbohydrate hydrogel containing cyclodextrin vesicles as 3D junctions. A cellulose polymer is randomly modified with hydrophobic side groups that act as guests for the cyclodextrin hosts on the surface of the vesicles. Hence, the vesicles interconnect the polymer chains into a three-dimensional network and act as multivalent linkages. The resulting gel shows significant shear-thinning and self-healing properties, which make it highly suitable for applications that require injectability. Furthermore, SAXS and cryo-TEM measurements indicate that intact vesicles are present in the gel matrix.

Hierarchical supramolecular hydrogels: self-assembly by peptides and photo-controlled release via host–guest interaction

“…Self-thinning and self-healing properties of the gel were observed and as a result, an injectable hydrogel was obtained. 18 Furthermore, the non-covalent interaction enables the response of these soft materials to various stimuli, for example, light, [12][13][14] redox, 15,16 metal-ion 19 and temperature, 20 based on responsive guest molecules. Self-assembly of low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs), on the other hand, has also attracted considerable attention in the past decade.…”

Intrinsic Self-Healing Polymers Based on Supramolecular Interactions: State of the Art and Future Directions

“…Himmelein et al prepared an Ad-modified cellulose polymer that was crosslinked with cyclodextrin-containing vesicles [239]. This material revealed shear-thinning and self-healing properties.…”

Cyclodextrin-Mediated Hierarchical Self-Assembly and Its Potential in Drug Delivery Applications

“…In addition to their inherent stimuliresponsive nature, 99 physical hydrogels possess a plethora of other advantageous features such as compositional flexibility, tailorability, and self-healing properties. 100,101 The introduction of CDs as structural units of both chemical and physical hydrogels proved to be beneficial, given the ease and versatility of CD functionalization (via multiple primary and secondary hydroxyls), their high biocompatibility, and the opportunity to exploit the CD-hydrophobic guest inclusion chemistry. 102 In order to get a general insight into the advances in the domain of CDcontaining hydrogels, an interested reader is encouraged to refer to a recently published review by Tan et al 32 Herein, though, we will concentrate on the most significant examples exploiting hierarchical self-assembly strategy to construct non-covalent CD hydrogels with attractive biomedical profiles.…”