Sequential modes of crosslinking tune viscoelasticity of cell-instructive hydrogels.

ABSTRACT: Materials that can mimic the fibrillar architecture of native extracellular matrix (ECM) while allowing for independent regulation of viscoelastic properties may serve as ideal, artificial ECM (aECM) to regulate cell functions. Here we describe an interpenetrating network of click-functionalized alginate, crosslinked with a combination of ionic and covalent crosslinking, and fibrillar collagen type I. Varying the mode and magnitude of crosslinking enables tunable stiffness and viscoelasticity, while altering neither the hydrogel's microscale architecture nor diffusional transport of molecules with molecular weight relevant to typical nutrients. Further, appropriately timing sequential ionic and covalent crosslinking permits self-assembly of collagen into fibrillar structures within the net

SUBMITTER: Vining KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6279497 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature