Stretchable, Anti-Bacterial Hydrogel Activated by Large Mechanical Deformation

摘要

This study demonstrated a mechanically-triggered, molecule delivery system by chemically linking cyclodextrin acrylate with a stretchable polyacrylamide hydrogel, exhibiting an ultimate tensile strain higher than 1.0. The molecular release kinetics could be orchestrated by the magnitude of tensile strain applied to the gel and DSA. In particular, cyclodextrin acrylate with DSA of 2.3 led to the formation of a gel with a higher sensitivity towards external stretching than that formed with DSA of 1.3. As such, mechanical stretching of the polyacrylamide-cyclodextrin gel loaded with quinine successfully inhibited bacterial growth through the enhanced drug release. Taken together, this study offers an advanced molecule delivery system that utilizes mechanical effects to release molecular cargos via microstructural modification of the gel at molecular level. The results will be useful in the design of controlled molecule delivering systems that may employ the wide array of the cyclodextrin-binding molecules.