• Freire, Carmen S. R.
• Shahbazi, Mohammad-Ali
• Vilela, Carla
• Pedro, Sónia N.
• Santos, Hélder A.
• Carvalho, Tiago
• Pinto, Ricardo J. B.
• Bártolo, Raquel
• Valente, Bruno F. A.

Abstract

Biopolymeric injectablehydrogels are promising biomaterialsformyocardial regeneration applications. Besides being biocompatible,they adjust themselves, perfectly fitting the surrounding tissue.However, due to their nature, biopolymeric hydrogels usually lackdesirable functionalities, such as antioxidant activity and electricalconductivity, and in some cases, mechanical performance. Protein nanofibrils(NFs), such as lysozyme nanofibrils (LNFs), are proteic nanostructureswith excellent mechanical performance and antioxidant activity, whichcan work as nanotemplates to produce metallic nanoparticles. Here,gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized in situ in the presenceof LNFs, and the obtained hybrid AuNPs@LNFs were incorporated intogelatin-hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels for myocardial regenerationapplications. The resulting nanocomposite hydrogels showed improvedrheological properties, mechanical resilience, antioxidant activity,and electrical conductivity, especially for the hydrogels containingAuNPs@LNFs. The swelling and bioresorbability ratios of these hydrogelsare favorably adjusted at lower pH levels, which correspond to theones in inflamed tissues. These improvements were observed while maintainingimportant properties, namely, injectability, biocompatibility, andthe ability to release a model drug. Additionally, the presence ofAuNPs allowed the hydrogels to be monitorable through computer tomography.This work demonstrates that LNFs and AuNPs@LNFs are excellent functionalnanostructures to formulate injectable biopolymeric nanocompositehydrogels for myocardial regeneration applications. ; Peer reviewed

Topics

• nanoparticle
• nanocomposite
• tomography
• gold
• biomaterials
• electrical conductivity
• biocompatibility