Due to the syringeability of precursor solution and convenience of open surgical treatment, injectable hydrogels have gained growing attention in drug delivery application. For load-bearing tissue, the excellent mechanical property is an important requirement for delivery vehicles to resist external stress and loads. Herein, we prepared mechanically robust injectable hydrogels (HA/γ-PGA hydrogels for short) using methacrylate-functionalized hyaluronic acid and poly (γ-glutamic acid) via photopolymerization. The HA/γ-PGA hydrogels showed outstanding anti-compression ability and could suffer a more than 80% strain. Meanwhile, after 5 cycles of compression, HA/γ-PGA hydrogels could still recover quickly against external stress, showing excellent shape recovery capability. Moreover, the mechanical properties could be modulated easily by changing the molar ratio of HA to γ-PGA. The drug release behavior was also evaluated and the drug-loaded HA/γ-PGA hydrogels showed a weak burst release and sustained release behavior. Additionally, HA/γ-PGA hydrogels also exhibited superior biocompatibility. Therefore, HA/γ-PGA hydrogels have great potential as injectable drug carriers for load-bearing tissue application.
Keywords: Hyaluronic acid; drug carriers; hydrogel; load-bearing tissue.