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.

Although periodate-oxidized dextran is widely used in biomedical applications, the degradation mechanism of oxidized dextran has not yet been elucidated. Herein, we propose a novel main chain scission mechanism of oxidized dextran triggered by reaction with amine. NMR analysis revealed four hemiacetal substructures during oxidation by periodate. Kinetic analysis showed that the degradation time constant of the C3-removed substructure and increasing time constant of the reducing end protons are consistent with the decrease in molecular weight determined by gel permeation chromatography. A methylene group is generated at the same time constant of degradation, indicating that oxidized dextran degradation proceeds via a Maillard reaction. Oxidized dextran does not degrade in saline solution without reactive amine species. Thus, we conclude that oxidized dextran is degraded in the main chain via Schiff base formation through a Maillard reaction, depending on the oxidation ratio and amino acid concentration. These findings help to elucidate the reaction mechanism of polysaccharide degradation and develop novel biodegradable polysaccharide materials for biomedical applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 2254–2260