Biomimetic and enzyme-responsive dynamic hydrogels for studying cell-matrix interactions in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT: The tumor microenvironment (TME) governs all aspects of cancer progression and in vitro 3D cell culture platforms are increasingly developed to emulate the interactions between components of the stromal tissues and cancer cells. However, conventional cell culture platforms are inadequate in recapitulating the TME, which has complex compositions and dynamically changing matrix mechanics. In this study, we developed a dynamic gelatin-hyaluronic acid hybrid hydrogel system through integrating modular thiol-norbornene photopolymerization and enzyme-triggered on-demand matrix stiffening. In particular, gelatin was dually modified with norbornene and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid to render this bioactive protein photo-crosslinkable (through thiol-norbornene gelation) and responsive to tyrosinase-tr

SUBMITTER: Liu HY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5815383 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature