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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Apr 21.
Published in final edited form as: J Mater Chem B. 2014;2(34):5511–5521. doi: 10.1039/c4tb00496e

Fig. 4. Hydrogel degradation in reducing microenvironment by cleavage of click bonds.

Fig. 4

Degradation of the hydrogel in a thiol-rich reducing microenvironment (10 mM GSH) was studied by monitoring A) the storage modulus and B) % volumetric swelling at discrete time points. All compositions exhibit an initial change in properties over 24 h as equilibrium swelling occurs. Due to the presence of the arylthiol-based thioether succinimide crosslinks, D2ER hydrogels exhibited rapid bulk degradation by click cleavage and thiol exchange reactions. The arrow indicates the time point when reverse gelation was observed. D1E and Control hydrogels were relatively stable during the experimental time frame due to the absence of GSH-sensitive crosslinks. The data shown illustrate the mean (n = 6), with error bars showing the standard error.