S Soltani - Department of Materials Engineering, Isfahan University of Tech-nology, Isfahan, Iran
RA Emadi - Department of Materials Engineering, Isfahan University of Tech-nology, Isfahan, Iran
SH Haghjoo Javanmard - Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan Univer-sity of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
M Kharaziha - Department of Materials Engineering, Isfahan University of Tech-nology, Isfahan, Iran

Background: Injectable hydrogels afford direct injection or catheter delivery to tissues. However, many injectable hydro-gels require long reassembly times or the use of triggers such as chemical initiators or heat.Materials and Methods: We developed an injectable alginate (Alg) hydrogel based on the guest-host interactions of adaman-tine modified Alg (guest macromer, Ad-Alg) and β-cyclodextrin modified Alg (host macromer, CD-Alg).Results: The ability of conjugation to Alg was confirmed by 1H NMR spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Mixing of Ad-Alg and CD-Alg resulted in rapid formation of a hydrogel composed of guest−host bonds.Conclusion: The guest−host assembly mechanism allowed both shear-thinning behavior for ease of injection and near in-stantaneous reassembly for material retention at the target sight. These hydrogels show potential as a minimally invasive inject-able hydrogel for biomedical applications and tissue engineer-ing.

Injectable Hydrogel, Guest-Host Interactions, Algi-nate, β-Cyclodextrin, Tissue Engineering