Preparation of novel injectable photo-crosslinked collagen gels by a fast and simple method

[Display omitted] •The extracted collagen has complete structure and three-dimensional topology.•Collagen can be issolved in α-KA and attached to AA-NHS with double bonds.•The collagen gels can be formed by a fast and simple photo-crosslinking method.•This innovative collagen gel is injectable and formable in situ. α-Ketoglutaric acid (α-KA), is an intermediate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and amino acid metabolism. We innovatively used the important dicarboxylic acid α-KA to dissolve collagen, and attached acrylic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (AA-NHS) with double bonds to the side chain of collagen (Col-AA-NHS), and the collagen hydrogels (Col Gel) could be further formed via fast and simple photo-crosslinking method. The results showed that the collagen-based gels had rapid photo-induced gelation, in-situ injection moldability, porous structure, good mechanical strength, water retention, degradation properties and good cytocompatibility, which is expected to be used in the biomedical field, such as drug carriers, tissue engineering scaffolds, etc.