Injectable pH- and Temperature-Responsive Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-propylacrylic acid) Copolymers for Delivery of Angiogenic Growth Factors

A new sharply pH- and temperature-responsive hydrogel system was designed for delivering drugs to regions of local acidosis, as found in wound healing, tumor sites, or sites of ischemia. The reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique was used to synthesize copolymers of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAM) and propylacrylic acid (PAA) with feed ratios of PAA between 0 and 20 mol %. The pH-responsive viscoelastic properties of these materials as a function of pH and temperature were quantified by rheometry. At physiologic pH (7.4) and 5 wt %, the polymer did not form gels but rather remained soluble at temperatures as high as 50 °C. At lower pH values (pH ca. 5.5 and below), the polymer was liquid at 20 °C, but exhibited a sol−gel phase transformation with increasing temperature and existed as a physical gel at 37 °C. Incorporation of the hydrophobic monomer, butyl acrylate, into the random copolymer raised the pH of gel formation to greater than 6.0 at 37 °C. Drug loading studies demonstrated that p(NIPAAm-co-PAA) hydrogels are able to maintain the bioactivity of basic fibroblast growth factor following storage in hydrogel for 40 h and can provide sustained pH-dependent release of vascular endothelial growth factor over a period of at least three weeks. This hydrogel system will thus gel at controllable acidic pH values upon injection, and is designed to undergo gradual dissolution as it performs its drug delivery function and the ischemic site returns to physiological pH.