A Tailor-Made Synthetic Polymer for Cell Encapsulation: Design Rationale, Synthesis, Chemical-Physics and Biological Characterizations

This study presents a custom-made in situ gelling polymeric precursor for cell encapsulation. Composed of poly((2-hydroxyethyl) methacrylate-co-(3-aminopropyl)methacrylamide) (P(HEMA-co-APM) mother backbone and RGD-mimicking poly(amidoamine) (PAA) moiteis, the comb-like structured polymeric precursor is tailored to gather the advantages of the two families of synthetic polymers, i.e., the good mechanical integrity of PHEMA-based polymers and the biocompatibility and biodegradability of PAAs. The role of P(HEMA-co-APM) in the regulation of the chemico-physical properties of P(HEMA-co-APM)/PAA hydrogels is thoroughly investigated. On the basis of obtained results, namely the capability of maintaining vital NIH3T3 cell line in vitro for 2 d in a 3D cell culture, the in vivo biocompatibility in murine model for 16 d, and the ability of finely tuning mechanical properties and degradation kinetics, it can be assessed that P(HEMA-co-APM)/PAAs offer a cost-effective valid alternative to the so far studied natural polymer-based systems for cell encapsulation.