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Soft PEG‐Hydrogels with Independently Tunable Stiffness and RGDS‐Content for Cell Adhesion Studies
Author(s) -
M. Jonker Anika,
A. Bode Saskia,
H. Kusters Addie,
van Hest Jan C. M.,
Löwik Dennis W. P. M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.201500110
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , ethylene glycol , adhesion , peg ratio , chemistry , cell adhesion , polymer chemistry , rheology , polymer , hela , chemical engineering , biophysics , materials science , cell , biochemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , finance , biology , engineering , economics
Poly(ethylene)glycol (PEG)‐based hydrogels are often used as matrix material for cell culturing. An efficient method to prepare soft PEG gels is by cross‐linking via copper‐free strain‐promoted azide‐alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC). Here, the effect of polymer density and RGDS‐content on hydrogel formation and cell adhesion was studied, by varying the total polymer content (10, 20 and 30 mg · mL −1 ) and the amount of RGDS moieties (0–100%) independently of each other. Rheology studies confirmed the soft nature of the hydrogels ( G ′ = 25–2 298 Pa). HOS cells are able to adhere well to all RGDS‐containing gels. Interestingly, both HeLa cells and NIH 3T3 fibroblasts showed substantial adherence to 10 and 20 mg · mL −1 gels, but with increased hydrogel stiffness (30 mg · mL −1 ), their cellular adhesion decreased significantly.