Premium
25th Anniversary Article: Designer Hydrogels for Cell Cultures: A Materials Selection Guide
Author(s) -
Thiele Julian,
Ma Yujie,
Bruekers Stéphanie M. C.,
Ma Shaohua,
Huck Wilhelm T. S.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201302958
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , natural polymers , tissue engineering , materials science , nanotechnology , natural materials , synthetic biology , polymer , polymer science , biology , computational biology , polymer chemistry , composite material , genetics
Cell culturing, whether for tissue engineering or cell biology studies, always involves placing cells in a non‐natural environment and no material currently exist that can mimic the entire complexity of natural tissues and variety of cell‐matrix interactions that is found in vivo. Here, we review the vast range of hydrogels, composed of natural or synthetic polymers that provide a route to tailored microenvironments.