Hydrogels are biocompatible, water-swollen polymer networks that are commonly used for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and 3D cell culture applications. Cell behavior is influenced by mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix, including stiffness and stress relaxation, but most hydrogel systems do not replicate the viscoelastic features of soft tissue. Viscoelastic properties of body tissues can be integrated synthetically through incorporation of dynamic covalent crosslinks. However, stress relaxation in viscoelastic, covalently-crosslinked hydrogels usually occurs through dissociative exchange reactions, which makes stiffness and stress relaxation challenging to independently control. Our group is interested in decoupling these two properties by engaging an associative mechanism of crosslinker exchange. Thus, aryl thiol-thioester crosslinkers were synthesized in which incorporation of electronic effects and internal catalysis enables tunability of molecular exchange rate and consequently stress relaxation timescales of the corresponding hydrogels. This work offers insight into how crosslinker reactivity affects network properties and a new hydrogel system for cell studies that require precise recapitulation of the <i>in vivo</i> mechanical environment.

Tuning mechanical properties in hydrogels with associative thiol-thioester crosslinks

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