A Co-Polymerizable Linker for the Covalent Attachment of Fibronectin Makes pHEMA Hydrogels Cell-Adhesive.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogels are attractive biomaterials because their chemical and mechanical properties can be tailored to mimic those of biological tissues. However, many hydrogels do not allow cell or protein attachment. Therefore, they are post-synthetically functionalized by adding functional groups for protein binding, which then allows cell adhesion in cell culture substrates. However, the degree of functionalization and covalent binding is difficult to analyze in these cases. Moreover, the density of the functional groups and the homogeneity of their distribution is hard to control. This work introduces another strategy for the biofunctionalization of hydrogels: we synthesized a polymerizable linker that serves as a direct junction between the polymeric structure and cell adhesion proteins. This mal

SUBMITTER: Schumacher L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9140594 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature