Figure 14.

Protease-degradable growth factor nanocapsules protect growth factors during hydrogel formation and control the release of growth factors in vitro and in vivo. Growth factor nanocapsules are formed through the in situ radical polymerization of acrylate and acrylamide-containing monomers and peptide crosslinkers to generate a hydrated nanohydrogel shell around a single protein. The result is a single protein nanocapsule that is protease degradable through the incorporated peptide crosslinkers. The speed of degradation is modulated by introducing D peptide sequences that are degraded more slowly by the proteases. Reproduced with permission from Ref.^[165] copyright (2015) Wiley.