Figure 1.

(a) Preparation of azobenzene-modified dextran (AB–Dex) and cyclodextrin-modified dextran (CD-Dex) through the thiol–maleimide reaction; (b) Schematic representation of photoresponsive protein release from the gel composed of trans AB–Dex and CD–Dex. Upon UV light irradiation azobenzene moieties isomerise from trans to cis configurations, resulting in the dissociation of crosslinking points, and allowing the entrapped protein to migrate into the media [51]. (Reproduced from Peng et al. [51] with permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry.)