On the structure alteration of crosslinkable gelatin coupled with methacrylic acid and its hydrogel

Abstract

Physical structures of a crosslinkable gelatin derivative (GM) were studied in terms of alteration of apparent molecular weight, triple helix content and mechanical strength. The GM with a substitution degree (DS) of 49% and 79% was prepared by grafting mechacrylic acid (MA), which was able to form injectable hydrogel by photoinitiating polymerization. The zeta potential was increased along the increase of DS. After modification, the apparent number-average molecular weight (Mn) detected by gel permeation chromatography was decreased to about 2/3 of gelatin, while the apparent weight-average molecular weight (Mw) was changed within a small range. Differential scanning calorimetry and circular dichroism (CD) revealed that ability of triple-helix formation of GM was decreased along with the increase of DS and decrease of GM concentration. After photocrosslinking, the sol-gel transition of GM49 physical-chemical hydrogel still existed, but completely disappeared for its chemical hydrogel. The physical-chemical hydrogel showed a larger storage modulus at 20°C than at 37°C as a result of additional physical crosslinking.