Poly(vinyl alcohol) Modified via the Hantzsch Reaction for Biosafe Antioxidant Self-Healing Hydrogel

Efficient routes for the preparation of functional self-healinghydrogels from functional polymers are needed. In this study, we developeda strategy to effectively produce a vanillin-modified poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA-vanillin) through the Hantzsch reaction. This polymer was cross-linkedwith a phenylboronic acid-containing polymer (PB) that was also preparedusing the Hantzsch reaction to fabricate a hydrogel through borateester linkages under mild conditions (25 & DEG;C, pH & SIM; 7.4).This hydrogel had excellent antioxidant abilities due to the 1,4-dihydropyridine(DHP) rings and the vanillin moieties in the hydrogel structures;it was also self-healable and injectable owing to the dynamic borateester linkages. Furthermore, the antioxidant self-healing hydrogelhad low cytotoxicity and exhibited favorable safety in animal experiments,indicating its potential as a safe implantable cell or drug carrier.This study developed a method for preparing functional polymers andrelated self-healing hydrogels in a facile manner; it demonstratedthe value of the Hantzsch reaction in exploiting antioxidant self-healinghydrogels for biomedical applications, which may provide insight intothe design of other functional self-healing hydrogels through differentmulticomponent reactions.