To conduct degradation studies, we utilized weighted hydrogel freeze-dried samples. These samples were submerged in pH 7.4 PBS and kept at 37 °C for specific time intervals. After each interval, we removed the samples from the PBS solution, dried them, and recorded their weight. We then calculated the hydrogel degradation using the following equation: Degradation (%) = (mt/m0) × 100, where mt and m0 refer to weight of freeze-dried hydrogels at selected time interval and before immersing in PBS respectively.