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BLOCK POLYPEPTIDE HYDROGELS Material formed at low concentration could find use in tissue engineering A new type of peptidic hydrogel scaffold forms at polymer concentrations as low as 0.25 to 2.0% by weight, according to researchers at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the department of materials science and engineering at the University of Delaware, Newark [Nature, 417, 424 (2002)]. The new hydrogels could be used in drug delivery and tissue engineering applications.
One problem with protein hydrogels produced from natural sources is their variability. "Our polymers are simple to prepare with consistent properties," Deming says. "They contain only natural amino acids and should be enzymatically degradable. The gel formation process is very benign and straightforward--just add water." The work "opens up a new avenue not only in the synthesis of highly effective gel-forming polymers, but also in the synthesis of extremely stable micelles," says Kinam Park, professor of biomedical engineering and pharmaceutics at Purdue University, who studies hydrogels for drug delivery applications. "It will be interesting to test whether such a gel-forming property is maintained at physiological conditions." |
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