2.1. Materials

Bovine serum albumin (BSA), PLGA (LA:GA = 75:25, M_W = 66,000–107,000), Tween-80, dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate (EA), Pluronic F-68 (Mn = 8,400), D-mannitol, divinyl sulfone (DVS), and DL-dithiothreitol (DTT) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Sodium hyaluronate (HA) (M_W = 100,000) was obtained from Seedchem (Camberwell, Australia). ARPE-19 cells were purchased from ATCC (Manassas, VA, USA). Fluoresbrite yellow green nano/microspheres with diameters of 50 nm and 2 µm were purchased from Polysciences (Warrington, PA, USA) for studying the release behavior in the hydrogel. All the chemical reagents in the experiments were used without further purification.