Calcium Ions-Driven Hydrogel Scaffold Toward the Robust Antioxidant and Anticancer Biomaterials

Abstract

The presented investigation attempts to unveil the novel approach to prepare glucomannan/collagen-based hydrogel through the utilization of calcium ions (i.e., Ca2+) as the cross-linker. The achieved composite provides an appropriate scaffold for the deposition of gallic acid as an active species. It turns out that gallic acid-decorated glucomannan/Ca2+/collagen composite (denoted as KGM/Ca2+/Col/GA) shows a great capacity to prevent free radicals in the antioxidant test. Impressively, the as-generated KGM/Ca2+/Col/GA sample demonstrates a robust capability to inhibit KB cells in the cytotoxic evaluation, associated with an extremely low IC50 value (e.g., 8.8±0.5 μg/mL). Such pieces of evidence suggest the potential application of KGM/Ca/Col/GA hydrogel material in medical applications.