Investigation on pH/salt-responsive multifunctional itaconic acid based polymeric biocompatible, antimicrobial and biodegradable hydrogels

The present investigation focused on a new kind of pH-tunable IAD polymeric hydrogels based on itaconic acid (IA), acrylic acid (AA) and diethylene glycol (DEG), were synthesized by free radical polymerization viz. organic solventless approach and they were characterized by FT-IR, SEM analysis. For successive biocompatible hydrogels, biological activities were mainly considered for investigation. The swelling studies showed that the IAD hydrogels exhibited signiflcantly greater pH-responsive swelling in alkaline medium and achieved up to 2200%. The salt responsive behaviour of IAD hydrogels proved that the results of swelling equilibrium decreased with increasing charge of the cation. Since, the prepared hydrogels were anionic in nature, excellent antibacterial zone of inhibition achieved towards gram + ve pathogens. It was found that the IAD hydrogels were performed better antifungal zone of inhibition against C. albicans. The IAD hydrogels pronounced noticeable zone of inhibition towards various pathogens even for pristine (without antibiotic) samples. The prepared itaconic acid based hydrogels were nontoxic due to their IC-50% values. The IAD hydrogels underwent for biodegradation due to n-number of ester moieties. It facilitated, hydrolysis of polymeric skeleton and achieved 88% of degradation. It was found that IA based pH-sensitive polymeric hydrogels were nontoxic with aggregable biomedical properties.