UMMS Affiliation
Department of Orthopedics and Physical Rehabilitation
Publication Date
2018-08-22
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology | Cell Biology | Cells | Medicinal-Pharmaceutical Chemistry | Molecular, Cellular, and Tissue Engineering
Abstract
Viscoelasticity, stiffness, and degradation of tissue matrices regulate cell behavior, yet predictive synergistic tuning of these properties in synthetic cellular niches remains elusive. We hypothesize that reversible physical cross-linking can be quantitatively introduced to synthetic hydrogels to accelerate stress relaxation and enhance network stiffness, while strategic placement of isolated labile linkages near cross-linking sites can predict hydrogel degradation, both of which are essential for creating adaptive cellular niches. To test these hypotheses, chondrocytes were encapsulated in hydrogels formed by biorthogonal covalent and noncovalent physical cross-linking of a pair of hydrophilic building blocks. The stiffer and more viscoelastic hydrogels with DBCO-DBCO physical cross-links facilitated proliferation and chondrogenic ECM deposition of encapsulated cells by dissipating stress imposed by expanding cell mass/ECM via dynamic disruption/reformation of physical cross-links. Degradation of labile linkages near covalent cross-linkers further facilitated cell proliferation and timed cell release while maintaining chondrogenic phenotype. This work presents new chemical tools for engineering permissive synthetic niches for cell encapsulation, 3D expansion, and release.
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License, which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.
DOI of Published Version
10.1021/acscentsci.8b00170
Source
ACS Cent Sci. 2018 Aug 22;4(8):971-981. doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.8b00170. Epub 2018 Jul 20. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
ACS central science
Related Resources
PubMed ID
30159394
Repository Citation
Tan, Yu; Huang, Henry; Ayers, David C.; and Song, Jie, "Modulating Viscoelasticity, Stiffness, and Degradation of Synthetic Cellular Niches via Stoichiometric Tuning of Covalent versus Dynamic Noncovalent Cross-Linking" (2018). Open Access Articles. 3547.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/3547
Included in
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Cell Biology Commons, Cells Commons, Medicinal-Pharmaceutical Chemistry Commons, Molecular, Cellular, and Tissue Engineering Commons