Cold-adaptation of a methacrylamide gelatin towards the expansion of the biomaterial toolbox for specialized functionalities in tissue engineering

© 2019 Elsevier B.V.Tissue regeneration is witnessing a significant surge in advanced medicine. It requires the interaction of scaffolds with different cell types for efficient tissue formation post-implantation. The presence of tissue subtypes in more complex organs demands the co-existence of different biomaterials showing different hydrolysis rate for specialized cell-dependent remodeling. To expand the available toolbox of biomaterials with sufficient mechanical strength and variable rate of enzymatic degradation, a cold-adapted methacrylamide gelatin was developed from salmon skin. Compared with mammalian methacrylamide gelatin (GelMA), hydrogels derived from salmon GelMA displayed similar mechanical properties than the former. Nevertheless, salmon gelatin and salmon GelMA-derived hydrogels presented characteristics common of cold-adaptation, such as reduced activation energy for collagenase, increased enzymatic hydrolysis turnover of hydrogels, increased interconnected polypepti