Antibacterial and cell-adhesive polypeptide and poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel as a potential scaffold for wound healing

Abstract

The ideal wound healing scaffold should provide the appropriate physical and mechanical properties to prevent secondary infection, as well as an excellent physiological environment to facilitate cell adhesion, proliferation and/or differentiation. Therefore, we developed a synthetic cell-adhesive polypeptide hydrogel with inherent antibacterial activity. A series of polypeptides, poly(Lys)x(Ala)y (x+y=100) with varied hydrophobicity via metal-free ring-opening polymerization of NCA-Lys(Boc) and NCA-Ala monomers (NCA = N-carboxylic anhydride) mediated by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) were synthesized. These polypeptides were cross-linked with 6-arm PEG-amide succinimidyl glutarate (ASG) (Mw = 10K) to form hydrogels with a gelation time of five minutes and a storage modulus (G') of 1400–3000 Pa as characterized by rheometry. The hydrogel formed by cross-linking of poly(Lys)60(Ala)40 (5 wt%) and 6-arm PEG-ASG (16 wt%) (Gel-III) exhibited cell adhesion and cell proliferation activities superior to other polypeptide hydrogels. In addition, Gel-III displays significant antibacterial activity against E. coli JM109 and S. aureus ATCC25923. Thus, we have developed a novel, cell-adhesive hydrogel with inherent antibacterial activity as a potential scaffold for cutaneous wound healing.