Photocrosslinking of hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels through biotissue barriers
Application of photocurable hydrogels as biomaterials is one of the goals of tissue engineering. In our work, carried out by scientists from the IBC RAS and other institutes, we propose, instead of traditional UV photoinitiators, photosensitizer derivatives - chlorin p6, chlorin e6 and phthalocyanine - in combination with coinitiators dithiothreitol or 2-mercaptoethanol, which activate photocrosslinking of gels inside the body when irradiated with red light (660-670 nm) falling into the biotissue transparency window. The formation of photo-crosslinked gels based on hyaluronic acid in vitro and in vivo was demonstrated. The gels had a Young's modulus (~270-460 kPa) typical of soft tissues and retained their shape and size in the organism within a month. The work was supported by the RSF, grant 21-79-10384, and published in journal Biomaterials science.
january 27, 2025