Abstract
DNA hydrogels are self-assembled biomaterials that rely on Watson–Crick base pairing to form large-scale programmable three-dimensional networks of nanostructured DNA components. The unique mechanical and biochemical properties of DNA, along with its biocompatibility, make it a suitable material for the assembly of hydrogels with controllable mechanical properties and composition that could be used in several biomedical applications, including the design of novel multifunctional biomaterials. Numerous studies that have recently emerged, demonstrate the assembly of functional DNA hydrogels that are responsive to stimuli such as pH, light, temperature, biomolecules, and programmable strand-displacement reaction cascades. Recent studies have investigated the role of different factors such as linker flexibility, functionality, and chemical crosslinking on the macroscale mechanical properties of DNA hydrogels. In this review, we present the existing data and methods regarding the mechanical design of pure DNA hydrogels and hybrid DNA hydrogels, and their use as hydrogels for cell culture. The aim of this review is to facilitate further study and development of DNA hydrogels towards utilizing their full potential as multifeatured and highly programmable biomaterials with controlled mechanical properties.
Highlights
In order to facilitate the progression towards mechanically programmable Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based biomaterials, we identify important factors to consider for mechanical design of DNA hydrogels including structural rigidity, linker affinity or Tm, valency, linker flexibility, and steric availability of crosslinking points
Total DNA content should be considered in the design of DNA hydrogels as large-scale synthesis costs currently remain high
DNA hydrogels can be produced by large quantities of biologically derived double stranded DNA (dsDNA); similar mechanical properties were achieved at lower DNA content by forming hydrogels with DNA nanostructures
Summary
Considerable progress has been made in the DNA nanotechnology field in only a few decades, and DNA is routinely used to synthetize complex one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D), and three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures [4,5,6,7,8], meshes [9,10], devices [11,12,13], and hybrid biomaterials [14,15,16,17], among others. These DNA architectures can be assembled using different techniques such as tile assembly [18,19], DNA origami [4], and DNA bricks [20]
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