Novel functional biodegradable polymer. III. The construction of poly(γ‐glutamic acid)‐sulfonate hydrogel with fibroblast growth factor‐2 activity

Abstract Poly(γ‐glutamic acid)‐sulfonate (γ‐PGA‐S) hydrogel, with fibroblast growth factor (FGF)‐2 activity was investigated as a novel, next‐generation tissue‐engineering material. γ‐PGA‐net‐γ‐PGA‐S72 (S72‐netgel) was prepared with γ‐PGA‐S and γ‐PGA‐S72 (72% sulfonated γ‐PGA) to provide the high mobility of γ‐PGA‐S72 for FGF‐2 activity. Cell adhesion and proliferation activities were evaluated on γ‐PGA and γ‐PGA‐S hydrogels along with S72‐netgels. Both cell adhesion and proliferation activities of γ‐PGA and γ‐PGA‐S hydrogels were low. In contrast, S72‐netgels had high cell adhesion and proliferation activities, because of their low swelling ratios and high sulfonic acid group concentrations. Furthermore, S72‐netgels had high FGF‐2 activity, because γ‐PGA‐S72 retained FGF‐2 activity when incorporated into S72‐netgels. S72‐netgels should be useful as next‐generation tissue‐engineering material containing FGF‐2 activity. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2005