Hyaluronic acid-based self-repairing hydrogel preparation and 3D cell culture.

Aldehyde-modified hyaluronic acid (Ald-HA) was prepared and characterized by a variety of methods, and then Ald-HA was used as hydrogel skeleton to fabricate self-healing hydrogel with biocompatible polyethylene glycol diacylhydrazide (PEG DH) as cross-linkers. For this purpose, aqueous solutions of Ald-HA and PEG DH solutions with different molecular weight were used to prepare HA-based hydrogel for potential applications in biological applications. This novel biodegradable hydrogel behaved with good mechanical properties and self-repairing performance. Moreover, the hydrogels have good porous structure fit for controlled release of doxorubicin (DOX∙HCl) and showed successive slow release profile. Importantly, CCK-8 assay demonstrated that the HA-based hydrogel possessed good cytocompatibility to JB6 P + cells. The 3D cell culture experiment reveals that the hydrogel acted as a good framework for cell growth and reproduction. These experiments indicate that the new HA-based hydrogel has excellent bio-compatibility for both preclinical and clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]