Polyampholyte- and nanosilicate-based soft bionanocomposites with tailorable mechanical and cell adhesion properties

Engineered tissues are excellent substitutes for treating organ failure associated with disease, injury, and degeneration. Designing new biomaterials with controlled release profiles, good mechanical properties, and cell adhesion characteristics can be useful for the formation of specific functional tissues. Here, we report the formulation of nanocomposite hydrogels based on carboxylated poly-l-lysine and synthetic clay laponite XLG in which four-arm polyethylene glycol with N-hydroxy succinimide ester (PEG-NHS) was used as the chemical crosslinker. Interestingly, the degradation of this gel could be adjusted from a few days to a few months. Incorporation of laponite XLG resulted in the formation of mechanically tough hydrogels and conferred cytocompatibility. The mechanical properties of the nanocomposite could be modulated by changing the crosslinking density and laponite concentration. The feasibility of using this system for cellular therapies was investigated by evaluating cell adhesion on the nanocomposite surface. Thus, these nanocomposites can serve as scaffolds with tunable mechanical and degradation properties that also provide structural integrity to tissue constructs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1379–1386, 2016.