Preparation of Synthetic Polypeptide–PolyHIPE Hydrogels with Stimuli-Responsive Behavior

In this work, biodegradable macroporous stimuli-responsive polypeptide hydrogels based on l-glutamic acid (Glu) and its copolymers with equimolar amounts of l-phenylalanine (Phe) or l-lysine (Lys) were prepared by deprotection the corresponding organogels under acidic conditions. The synthesized ring-opening polymerization N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) derivatives ?-amino acids in oil-in-oil high-internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) using di-NCA derivative l-cystine as a cross-linker. exhibit typical interconnected porous polyHIPE morphology, which is completely preserved after removal protecting groups Glu Lys repeating units. pH-dependent behavior mechanical properties obtained studied buffer solutions different pH values. At 7.5, P(Glu) P(Glu-co-Phe) can be compressed to half their original height both return initial state unloading. By lowering 5.5, remains soft, while already becomes much stiffer. contrast, for P(Glu-co-Lys) hydrogel, high uptake was observed only at low values, whereas intermediate impaired ability are attributed attractive ionic interaction between oppositely charged side groups. We have shown that tuning chemical composition polypeptides, uptake, vitro enzymatic degradation, compression modulated.