Ethanol precipitation with cooling enables rapid purification of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) with increased yield and preserved solution-state organisation

  • Sci Rep. 2026 May 8. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-51741-2.
Paritat Thaitalay  1  2 ,  Ashish Pandit  1  2 ,  Lauma Ievina  1  2 ,  Julija Bulatova  2  3 ,  Antons Sizovs  2  3 ,  Janis Locs  4  5
Affiliations
  • 1. Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Riga Technical University, Paula Valdena Street 3-K1, Riga, Latvia.
  • 2. Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence, Headquarters at Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia.
  • 3. Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, 21 Aizkraukles St, Riga, Latvia.
  • 4. Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Riga Technical University, Paula Valdena Street 3-K1, Riga, Latvia. [email protected].
  • 5. Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence, Headquarters at Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia. [email protected].
PMID: 42103979 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-51741-2
Abstract

Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) is a widely used photocrosslinkable biomaterial, yet routine laboratory synthesis is constrained by multi-day dialysis required to remove cytotoxic methacrylic anhydride (MAA) and methacrylic acid (MA). Here we introduce a simple post-reaction precipitation of GelMA in ethanol (EtOH) as a faster purification route. EtOH precipitation combined with cooling increased the isolated yield after purification (up to + 17.5% versus the control) and markedly accelerated impurity removal, reaching commercially relevant residue benchmark (< 30 ppm) within 2 days, whereas the conventional route required 7 days under identical dialysis conditions. Importantly, CD and SEC indicated that prolonged dialysis altered GelMA solution-state organization while EtOH precipitation followed by only 2 days of dialysis better produced material more similar to the parent gelatin. Hydrogels prepared from control and EtOH-treated GelMA displayed comparable swelling, rheology, compressive response, and indirect cytocompatibility with MC3T3-E1 cells. This accessible EtOH-assisted workflow reduces purification time without sacrificing functionalization or hydrogel performance and may improve batch-to-batch consistency for laboratory-scale GelMA production.

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