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Building bio-based hydrogels with high strength and biocompatibility is still a challenge. Herein, we successfully constructed a hybrid double-network (DN) full biological hydrogel with excellent mechanical properties and biocompatibility by introducing a physically cross-linked gelatin (GEL) network in a covalently cross-linked poly (γ-glutamic acid) (γ-PGA) network. The γ-PGA-GEL DN hydrogel demonstrated ultra-high compression performance (38 MPa), which was better than all currently reported γ-PGA-based hydrogels, and its tensile performance (0.27 MPa) was also satisfactory. Due to the unique multi-crosslinked DN structure, the γ-PGA-GEL DN hydrogel had better recovery and healing properties than those of the γ-PGA single-network (SN) hydrogel. In addition, the γ-PGA-GEL DN hydrogel exhibited good transparency, swelling and degradability. In vitro cell experiments demonstrated that the γ-PGA-GEL DN hydrogel was beneficial to cell adhesion and proliferation. The evaluation of the full-thickness skin defects model in rats exhibited that the γ-PGA-GEL DN hydrogel could significantly accelerate wound healing. These results indicated that the γ-PGA-GEL DN hydrogel was an ideal candidate material for wound dressing., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Natural polymer hydrogels are expected to be promising biomaterial because of its excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, but they are soft and easily broken. Herein, the poly (γ-glutamic acid) (γ-PGA)/bacterial cellulose (BC) composite hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties were constructed by introducing bacterial cellulose. The γ-PGA/BC composite hydrogels were obtained by the covalent cross-linking of γ-PGA in the BC nanofibers suspensions. The γ-PGA/BC composite hydrogels exhibited excellent strength and toughness due to the more effective energy dissipation of hydrogen bonds network among BC nanofibers and γ-PGA hydrogel matrix and BC also acts as an enhancer. The compressive fracture strength and toughness of the γ-PGA/BC composite hydrogels could reach up to 5.72 MPa and 0.42 MJ/m 3 respectively. Additionally, the tensile strength of γ-PGA/BC composite hydrogels were improved 8.16 times compared with γ-PGA single network hydrogels. More significantly, BC could disperse evenly in the γ-PGA hydrogels because of the hydrophilic nature of γ-PGA and BC nanofillers, which led to good interface compatibility. The result of cytotoxicity tests indicated that γ-PGA/BC composite hydrogels present excellent cytocompatibility, which suggested that the γ-PGA/BC composite hydrogels could serve as promising materials for many biomaterial related applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Current medications for the treatment of hypertrophic scars suffer from bottlenecks of limited therapeutic efficacy and a slow recovery rate. Silk fibroin (SF) has gained attention for its ability to promote wound healing in burns and cutaneous wounds, but its therapeutic effects against hypertrophic scar have not been thoroughly investigated. We prepared SF-based hydrogels (SFHs) with various SF concentrations (1.5 %, 3 %, and 6 %) and characterized their physicochemical properties. Cell experiments showed that these SFHs had favorable biocompatibility in vitro. Further animal experiments in rabbits revealed that the SFH (3 %)-treated group achieved scars on their ears that were thinner and significantly lighter in color compared with the negative control group. Moreover, treatment with SFHs reduced the density and led to the orderly arrangement of collagen fibers. It was found that the therapeutic effects of SFHs were attributed to the reduced expression levels of α-smooth muscle actin. These results are the first to demonstrate that SFH can be exploited as an effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of hypertrophic scars., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, a novel pH-sensitive poly (amino acid) hydrogel based on poly γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) and ε-polylysine (ε-PL) was prepared by carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) mediated polymerization. The influence of PGA/PL molar ratio and EDC/NHS concentration on the structure and properties was studied. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) proved that hydrogels were crosslinked through amide bond linkage, and the conversion rate of a carboxyl group could reach 96%. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed a regularly porous structure with 20 μm pore size in average. The gelation time in the crosslink process of PGA/PL hydrogels was within less than 5 min. PGA/PL hydrogels had excellent optical performance that was evaluated by a novel optotype method. Furthermore, PGA/PL hydrogels were found to be pH-sensitive, which could be adjusted to the pH of swelling media intelligently. The terminal pH of swelling medium could be controlled at 5 ± 1 after equilibrium when the initial pH was within 3-11. The swelling kinetics was found to follow a Voigt model in deionized water but a pseudo-second-order model in normal saline and phosphate buffer solution, respectively. The differential swelling degrees were attributed to the swelling theory based on the different ratio of -COOH/-NH2 and pore size in hydrogels. The results of mechanical property indicated that PGA/PL hydrogels were soft and elastic. Moreover, PGA/PL hydrogels exhibited excellent biocompatibility by cell proliferation experiment. PGA/PL hydrogels could be degraded in PBS solution and the degradation rate was decreased with the increase of the molar ratio of PL. Considering the simple preparation process and pH-sensitive property, these PGA/PL hydrogels might have high potential for use in medical and clinical fields., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, poly γ-glutamic acid/ε-polylysine (γ-PGA/ε-PL) hydrogels were successful prepared. The γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels could be used to remove Na+, Ca2+, and Cr3+ from aqueous solution and were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The performance of hydrogels were estimated under different ionic concentration, temperature, and pH. The results showed that the ionic concentration and the pH significantly influenced the swelling capacity of γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels. The swelling capacities of γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels were decreased with the increase of the ionic concentration. However, the swelling capacity of the γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogel was increased with the increase of the pH. The swelling kinetics indicated that γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels presented a more limited swelling degree in metal ion solutions with higher ionic valence numbers than in ion solutions with lower ionic valence numbers. However, the swelling kinetics of γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels showed that they proposed a satisfactory description in NaCl and CaCl2 solutions. The adsorption process was fitted with a pseudo-second-order rate equation model. Moreover, the desorption kinetics of γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels showed that they could release most of the adsorption ions. Considering the biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ionic-sensitive properties, we propose that these γ-PGA/ε-PL hydrogels have high potential to be used in environmental protection, medical treatment, and other related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple in-situ method was introduced to prepare hydroxyethyl cellulose/poly(acrylic acid) (HEC/PAA) blend hydrogels by forming an interpenetrating network (IPN). Storage modulus (G′) and loss modulus (G″) were improved dramatically compared to HEC. To prove that hydrogen bonds and chemical crosslinking played major roles in improving the hydrogel strength and toughening, and to optimize the components of HEC/PAA blend hydrogels, a series of blend hydrogels with different ratios of HEC to PAA were designed and the corresponding Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), rheological tests, and swelling properties were compared. Crosslinked HEC/PAA blend hydrogel (mol/mol = 1:1) showed the best properties appropriate for opening up biomedical applications of the hydrogel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]