Structurally decoupled stiffness and solute transport in multi-arm poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels.

ABSTRACT: Synthetic hydrogels are widely used as artificial 3D environments for cell culture, facilitating the controlled study of cell-environment interactions. However, most hydrogels are limited in their ability to represent the physical properties of biological tissues because stiffness and solute transport properties in hydrogels are closely correlated. Resultingly, experimental investigations of cell-environment interactions in hydrogels are confounded by simultaneous changes in multiple physical properties. Here, we overcame this limitation by simultaneously manipulating four structural parameters to synthesize a library of multi-arm poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel formulations with robustly decoupled stiffness and solute transport. This structural design approach avoids chemical altera

SUBMITTER: Richbourg NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10785603 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature