Adaptable Fast Relaxing Boronate-Based Hydrogels for Probing Cell-Matrix Interactions.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogels with tunable viscoelasticity hold promise as materials that can recapitulate many dynamic mechanical properties found in native tissues. Here, covalent adaptable boronate bonds are exploited to prepare hydrogels that exhibit fast relaxation, with relaxation time constants on the order of seconds or less, but are stable for long-term cell culture and are cytocompatible for 3D cell encapsulation. Using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) as a model, the fast relaxation matrix mechanics are found to promote cell-matrix interactions, leading to spreading and an increase in nuclear volume, and induce yes-associated protein/PDZ binding domain nuclear localization at longer times. All of these effects are exclusively based on the hMSCs' ability to physically remodel their surrounding mi

SUBMITTER: Tang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6145256 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature