ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1586380
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Functional Materials, Structures and Devices for Advancing Human Healthcare ApplicationsView all 7 articles
Strong, Antioxidant, and Biodegradable Gelatin Methacryloyl Composite Hydrogel for Oxidative Stress Protection in Schwann Cells
Provisionally accepted
- 1Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
- 2First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
- 3Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
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Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA), a biomaterial widely used in tissue engineering, exhibits excellent biocompatibility and cell adhesion properties. However, its poor mechanical strength and functional monotony restrict broader clinical applications of this material. In this study, we introduced sodium acrylate (SA) and tannic acid (TA) into the GelMA system via a two-step crosslinking strategy, successfully fabricating a GelMA/SA-TA (GST) composite hydrogel that achieved dual enhancement of mechanical and antioxidant properties. The incorporation of SA and TA significantly improved the mechanical performance of the hydrogel, which exhibited a maximum tensile modulus of 31.83 ± 2.84 kPa. At the same time, TA endowed the hydrogel with exceptional antioxidant ability, resulting in a free radical scavenging rate of 89.93 ± 0.9% in vitro. Biological tests revealed that the GST hydrogel effectively alleviated oxidative stress damage in rat Schwann cells (RSC96) by suppressing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and promoting the secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This work presents the first report of an antioxidant hydrogel capable of protecting Schwann cells without compromising their mechanical integrity, highlighting its transformative potential for peripheral nerve injury repair. The synergistic SA-TA modification strategy provides new insights into the design of multifunctional biomaterials for neural regeneration applications.
Keywords: Gelatin methacryloyl, peripheral nerve injury, Tannic Acid, Schwann cell, antioxidant
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 05 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, ji, yang, pang, chen, zhu, Cao and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
jiaqi zhu, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang Province, China
Wenxin Cao, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang Province, China
Tao Song, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
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