Native Chemical Ligation-Driven Formation of Hyaluronic Acid-Based Injectable Hydrogels.

Authors

Camille Vantou, Nolwenn Vigneron, Benoit Keromnes, Romain Brusini, Michel Marquet, François Bourdon, Sébastien Vidal, Jimmy Faivre

Published in

Bioconjugate chemistry. Volume 37. Issue 10. Pages 1963-1974. Oct 21, 2026.

Abstract

We report the development of an injectable hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogel using native chemical ligation (NCL) as a biocompatible and chemoselective crosslinking strategy for potential biomedical applications. High-molecular-weight HA was pre-modified with a glycinyl thioester derivative, while a bis-cysteine peptide served as the crosslinker, enabling rapid hydrogel formation under physiological conditions. After optimization of NCL parameters, the resulting hydrogel exhibits all key attributes for biomedical hydrogel injectables: cytocompatibility, injectability, tunable rheology adapted for soft-tissue delivery (e.g., skin and subcutaneous tissue), enzymatic degradability by hyaluronidase, adjustable swelling, and long-term shelf-life stability. It can be sterilized by autoclaving for injection purposes and also functions as a drug delivery matrix for localized, in situ release. This study presents a robust and scalable HA-based platform, available as either an injectable hydrogel or an in situ cross-linkable solution, with broad potential in drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and aesthetic applications.

PMID:
42902940
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 22 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.