PEG Diacrylation and Synthesis of PEGDA Hydrogels with Different Molecular Weights: Cancer Cells Interactions

Optimized polymerization conditions of different molecular weight macromers help to design as scaffolds and/or drug delivery systems in the tissue engineering applications. Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels are widely used for various applications as biomaterial in tissue engineering and drug delivery areas. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) macromonomer of Mn: 6000 was esterified with different amounts of acryloyl chloride and triethyamine (TEA) to produce polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) macromonomers. Degree of acrylation was calculated from ¹ H NMR spectrums results. PEGDA with more than 90% degree of acrylation (DA) were determined for mole fraction of 1:4:4 PEG:AcrlyChl:TEA ratios. PEG with 2 KDa, 4 kDa, 10 kDa, and 20 kDa molecular weights were also acrylated and the FTIR spectrums showed that C = C vibration and formation of carbonyl bands of acrylated PEG’s were not as significant as 6 kDa. The characterization of photocroslinked 30 wt% PEGDA hydrogel of PEG 2 kDa, 4 kDa and 6 kDa macromers was estimated by dynamic swelling and biodegradation analyses and it was estimated that various molecular weight of macromers cause different swelling and degradation behaviour. Hydrogel morphological images were obtained by scanning electron microscopy analysis (SEM). Compressive strenght was higher for high PEGDA content hydrogel. Cellular death of colorectal adenocarcinoma cell, HT-29 change with photoinitiator ratio and PEGDA content.