Mastered proteolysis of gelatin gel can control delivery kinetics of entrapped large molecules

Abstract

Biogels are useful reservoirs for molecular delivery as they can entrap a large variety of compounds in their liquid phase. The delivery kinetics of these molecules is dictated by diffusion laws and thus depends on their molecular size. An original strategy to accelerate the release of large molecules from a gelatin gel is here described. The gel solid network is progressively degraded by enzymes which allows for the delivery of large to very large molecules in a well-controlled way. Diffusion by burst is thus made possible even for very large molecules. Finally, a mathematical model is elaborated to predict the diffusion of molecules entrapped inside a gel undergoing a gel–sol transition.