In situ supramolecular hydrogel based on hyaluronic acid and dextran derivatives as cell scaffold

In this study, hyaluronic acid‐β‐cyclodextrin conjugate (HA‐CD) and dextran‐2‐naphthylacetic acid conjugate (Dex‐NAA) were synthesized as two gelators. The degrees of substitution (DS) of these two gelators were determined to be 15.5 and 7.4%, respectively. Taking advantages of the strong and selective host–guest interaction between β‐CD and 2‐NAA, the mixture of two gelators could form supramolecular hydrogel in situ. Moreover, the pore size, gelation time, swelling ratio as well as modulus of the hydrogel could be adjusted by simply varying the contents of HA‐CD and Dex‐NAA. NIH/3T3 cells that entrapped in hydrogel grew well as compared with that cultured in plates, indicating a favorable cytocompatibility of the hydrogel. Collectively, the results demonstrated that the HA‐Dex hydrogel could potentially be applied in tissue engineering as cell scaffold. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2263–2270, 2016.