An injectable gelatin-based delivery platform mediated by guest-host complexation

Abstract

Injectable hydrogel systems are beneficial for various biomedical applications, including drug or cell delivery carriers, and tissue engineering scaffolds. In this work, we describe the design and characterization of a shear-thinning hydrogel that undergoes a disassembly when shear forces are applied during injection and self-heals once shear forces are removed. This hydrogel is based on a mixture of cyclodextrin- and adamantane-modified gelatins, forming through a weak guest-host interaction between the hydrophobic cavities of the cyclodextrin host molecule and the hydrophobic adamantane guest. The shear-thinning and self-healing behavior of these gels was monitored in low and high strain range and the rheological analyses indicated the formation of shear-thinning gels compared with unmodified gelatin.