Combinatorial synthesis of photo-crosslinked biodegradable networks

Photo-crosslinking is a technique that can accelerate the development of novel polymeric biomaterials. Here we show the development of a combinatorial platform to synthesize numerous synthetic biodegradable and biocompatible networks by photo-crosslinking mixtures of macromers. Combinations of dimethacrylate-terminated macromers based on hydrophobic D,L-lactide (DLLA), trimethylene carbonate (TMC), epsilon-caprolactone (CL), and hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) were crosslinked into polymer networks with widely differing properties. The interaction of cells with the network surfaces was assessed by an in vitro cell seeding experiment in which cell proliferation was assessed using a DNA proliferation assay. In this way, a hydrophilic material was identified that unexpectedly supported the proliferation of cells very well.