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Abstract
A variety of cross-linking methods is used for obtaining gelatin gels having a tolerance to thermo-reversible gel–sol transition at physiological temperature. In this paper, we investigated the applicability of horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed cross-linking of tyrosine residues originally contained in native gelatin molecules for preparing such gelatin gels. The gelatin gels obtained through exposure to the enzymatic reaction showed a higher resistance to thermo-reversibility at 37°C than gels obtained through a thermally-induced gelation alone. In addition, the resistance property to thermo-reversible gel–sol transition was tunable by controlling enzymatic reaction conditions: higher peroxidase concentration and thermally-induced pre-gelation accomplished by cooling the gelatin solution prior to the enzymatic reaction produced gels with higher resistance to thermo-reversibility. Fibroblast cells enclosed in the gelatin gels obtained through the enzymatic reaction with thermally-induced pre-gelation showed 93% viability. These results demonstrate the feasibility of peroxidase-catalyzed reaction for obtaining gelatin gels having a tolerance to thermo-reversible gel-to-sol transition at physiological temperature toward applications in biomedical and biopharmaceutical fields.