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Designing Microgels for Cell Culture and Controlled Assembly of Tissue Microenvironments
Author(s) -
Caldwell Alexander S.,
Aguado Brian A.,
Anseth Kristi S.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201907670
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , materials science , nanotechnology , tissue engineering , 3d cell culture , microporous material , regenerative medicine , cell encapsulation , scaffold , function (biology) , cell , biomedical engineering , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biology , medicine , biochemistry , polymer chemistry , composite material
Micrometer‐sized hydrogels, termed microgels, are emerging as multifunctional platforms that can recapitulate tissue heterogeneity in engineered cell microenvironments. The microgels can function as either individual cell culture units or can be assembled into larger scaffolds. In this manner, individual microgels can be customized for single or multicell coculture applications, or heterogeneous populations can be used as building blocks to create microporous assembled scaffolds that more closely mimic tissue heterogeneities. The inherent versatility of these materials allows user‐defined control of the microenvironments, from the order of singly encapsulated cells to entire 3D cell scaffolds. These hydrogel scaffolds are promising for moving towards personalized medicine approaches and recapitulating the multifaceted microenvironments that exist in vivo.