Biocompatible and enzymatically degradable gels for 3d cellular encapsulation under extreme compressive strain

Zain Clapacs, Sydney Neal, David Schuftan, Xiaohong Tan, Huanzhu Jiang, Jingxuan Guo, Jai Rudra, Nathaniel Huebsch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cell encapsulating scaffolds are necessary for the study of cellular mechanosensing of cultured cells. However, conventional scaffolds used for loading cells in bulk generally fail at low compressive strain, while hydrogels designed for high toughness and strain resistance are generally unsuitable for cell encapsulation. Here we describe an alginate/gelatin methacryloyl interpenetrating network with multiple crosslinking modes that is robust to compressive strains greater than 70%, highly biocompatible, enzymatically degradable and able to effectively transfer strain to encapsulated cells. In future studies, this gel formula may allow researchers to probe cellular mechanosensing in bulk at levels of compressive strain previously difficult to investigate.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101
JournalGels
Volume7
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2021

Keywords

  • Alginate
  • GelMA
  • Hydrogel
  • Interpenetrating network
  • Mechanosensing
  • Scaffold

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