Mimicking of Chondrocyte Microenvironment Using In Situ Forming Dendritic Polyglycerol Sulfate-Based Synthetic Polyanionic Hydrogels.

A stable polymeric network that mimics the highly polyanionic extracellular cartilage matrix still remains a great challenge. The main aim of this study is to present the synthesis of dendritic polyglycerol sulfate (dPGS)-based in situ forming hydrogels using strain promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions. A real time rheological study has been used to characterize the hydrogel properties. The viability of encapsulated human chondrocytes in the different hydrogels are monitored using live-dead staining. Furthermore, type I and II collagen gene have been analyzed. Hydrogels with elastic moduli ranging from 1 to 5 kPa have been prepared by varying the dPGS amount. The chondrocyte viability in dPGS hydrogels is found to be higher than in pure PEG and alginate-based hydrogels after 21 d. The higher cell viability in the dPGS engineered hydrogels can be explained by the fact that dPGS can interact with different proteins responsible for cell growth and proliferation.