chemoselective reaction of the aldehyde with the pendant
hydrazides. Similar peaks were absent in native gelatin and
untreated gelatin hydrazide (Fig. 6b) and no evidence of
aromatic imine formation was observed following the reaction of
unmodified gelatin with 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde under the same
conditions (not shown), confirming the chemoselectivity of this
reaction.
aminooxy compounds to uncaged aldehyde groups offers the
possibility of decorating functional materials with multiple bio-
logically active molecules without unwanted cross-reactivity
towards existing functional groups of biomolecules already
present on the material. By making small changes to the design of
the linker’s terminal functionality, this general approach is
applicable to a large number of biomaterials other than those
with accessible carboxylic acids and can potentially be utilized
with both two- and three-dimensional substrates, either alone or
in combination with other caged functional groups. Amongst the
possible applications of this approach is the recapitulation of
tissue microarchitectures and cell niches for the advancement of
areas such as biosensing, tissue modelling, tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine.
Cell adhesion and growth was studied using C2C12 myoblasts
as a model cell line. Collagen films were generated on circular
glass coverslips, activated with EDC/NHS and functionalized
with caged aldehyde 10. These coverslips were then placed within
standard multiwell cell culture plates and seeded with C2C12s
following exposure of the films to various conditions. After 72
hours of culture, cell growth on the different coverslip surfaces
was compared with that on the surrounding tissue culture plastic.
As might be expected for a substrate rich in hydrophobic phenyl
groups, surfaces functionalized with 10 did not support cell
adhesion and growth (Fig. 7a), thus fulfilling the criterion of non-
irradiated surfaces being non-adhesive. Cells on the surrounding
plastic became confluent and grew up to the edge of the coverslip
but did not cross the boundary. Photolysis of the PPGs, resulting
in exposure of aldehydes on the coverslip surfaces, elicited similar
results, with no adhesion or growth of cells on these surfaces
(Fig. 7b). Again, this was expected due to the design of the linker,
where the TEG spacer generates a cell- and protein-repulsive
layer on the biomaterial surface. The final two surface treatments
demonstrated the chemoselective ligation of gelatin hydrazide to
the uncaged aldehydes. The reaction of a hydrazide with a
carbonyl to generate a hydrazone bond is pH-dependent and
favoured under acidic conditions.24 Hence, we incubated
collagen films, following functionalization with 10 and subse-
quent irradiation, with either gelatin or gelatin hydrazide for 20
minutes at pH 5.5 prior to cell seeding. These surfaces did not
promote cell adhesion and growth following incubation with
gelatin, suggesting that the native protein did not react with the
aldehydes under these conditions (Fig. 7c), resulting in a surface
similar to that in Fig. 7b. While gelatin possesses free amine
groups, which may be expected to react with aldehydes, the
susceptibility of any resultant imines to hydrolysis results in a
shift in the equilibrium of this reaction away from imine
formation.36 Conversely, however, aldehyde rich surfaces that
were incubated with gelatin hydrazide promoted cell adhesion
and growth in excess of the surrounding tissue culture plastic,
clearly demonstrating the successful chemoselective ligation of
this protein to uncaged aldehydes under these reaction condi-
tions (Fig. 7d). This is a versatile approach, which could readily
be employed for the hydrazide functionalization of other
bioactive proteins and peptides, and their subsequent chemo-
selective ligation to biomaterial surfaces and matrices.
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Conclusions
A bifunctional caged aldehyde linker that can be coupled to a
number of different biomaterials and readily undergoes photol-
ysis in aqueous media has been synthesized, and chemoselective
ligation of biomolecules to the resulting uncaged aldehydes has
been demonstrated. To our knowledge, this is the first reported
use of caged aldehydes to functionalize material surfaces. Che-
moselective ligation of hydrazides, thiosemicarbazides or
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Chem., 2008, 73, 6152–6157.
This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 21878–21884 | 21883