Facile Technique for GelMA Synthesis Providing Increased Methacrylation Degree

Abstract Gelatin has been commonly used widely in medical applications such as in preparation of tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery vehicles and wound dressings. By the way, low resistance of gelatin toward proteolytic degradation and inferior mechanical strength is a challenge in employing this valuable polypeptide. Methacrylate modification of gelatin which imposes photocrosslinkable functional groups into its chain would be an efficient solution. Various methods for gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) synthesis has been investigated that commonly possess low efficiency or necessitate complicated reaction conditions. In the present study, a facile and inexpensive method is considered for GelMA synthesis for the first time. For this aim, short intervals of ultrasonic process were considered during the conventional synthesis mechanism. H-NMR results demonstrated the increased methacrylation efficiency by applying sonochemical reaction.