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Pristine DNA Hydrogels from Biotechnologically Derived Plasmid DNA
Author(s) -
Nöll Tanja,
WenderholdReeb Sabine,
Schönherr Holger,
Nöll Gilbert
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201705001
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , plasmid , dna , chemistry , materials science , chemical engineering , biochemistry , polymer chemistry , engineering
DNA hydrogels are of great interest for a variety of biomedical applications owing to their biocompatibility and biodegradability but the advantages of DNA hydrogels have not been exploited yet because of their limited availability. Thus far, DNA hydrogels have been prepared from synthetically derived building blocks, and their production on large scale would be far too expensive. As an alternative, here the generation of DNA hydrogels from plasmid DNA is reported. Plasmid DNA can be prepared on large scale at reasonable costs by a fermentation process. The desired linear DNA building blocks are then obtained from the plasmid DNA by enzymatic digestion. Gel formation is carried out by covalent bond formation between individual building blocks via enzymatic ligation. The generation of pristine DNA hydrogels from plasmid DNA is thus presented for the first time. The viscoelastic properties of the hydrogels were studied by rheology, which confirmed that the gels have storage moduli G′ of >100 Pa.