Injectable and fast self-healing protein hydrogels

Abstract

Injectable hydrogels are adapted to irregularities in the desired location by injection as a liquid and gelation in situ. However, traditional slow-gelling injectable hydrogels may result in loss of cargo (cells/drugs) as well as diffusion at the target site, and extremely rapid gelation may lead to undesired premature coagulation. These practical problems can be solved by using self-healing hydrogels. Herein, through the reduction of disulfide bonds in BSA protein by using a reducing agent, the disulfide bonds between the individual BSA protein molecules are re-matched to form a network structure, thereby forming a protein hydrogel. This hydrogel shows an efficient and rapid self-healing property, and the broken protein hydrogel can be fast repaired within 1-2 minutes in response to H2O2 stimulation, and the repair efficiency reached up to 100%. The hydrogel can be extruded using only a pinhole syringe, and cytotoxicity experiments have demonstrated excellent biocompatibility of the protein hydrogel. This non-toxic, injectable, fast self-healing protein hydrogel is expected to be widely used in biomedical, tissue engineering, injectable gel, 3D bioprinting, and other applications.