Thiol-responsive hydrogel scaffolds for rapid change in thermoresponsiveness

Abstract

A facile strategy to fabricate thiol-responsive thermoresponsive hydrogels able to rapidly change their volume in response to temperature is reported. The strategy utilizes crosslinking atom transfer radical polymerization to synthesize well-defined hydrogels of thermoresponsive oligo(ethylene oxide)-based polymethacrylates with a uniform network crosslinked with dynamic disulfides. Thiol-responsive cleavage of disulfide linkages to the corresponding pendant thiols allows for the generation of hydrophilic dangling chains in the hydrogels as well as the increase in hydrophilicity of the hydrogel network. The degraded hydrogels exhibit a rapid change of thermoresponsiveness (deswelling kinetics) with a slight sacrifice in mechanical properties. Evaluating the hydrogels from a biomedical perspective, rapid thermoresponsive hydrogels are non-cytotoxic and exhibit enhanced release of encapsulated model drugs.