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Effects of Structural Variations on the Cellular Response and Mechanical Properties of Biocompatible, Biodegradable, and Porous Smectic Liquid Crystal Elastomers
Author(s) -
Sharma Anshul,
Mori Taizo,
Mahnen Cory J.,
Everson Heather R.,
Leslie Michelle T.,
Nielsen Alek d.,
Lussier Laurent,
Zhu Chenhui,
Malcuit Christopher,
Hegmann Torsten,
McDonough Jennifer A.,
Freeman Ernest J.,
Korley LaShanda T. J.,
Clements Robert J.,
Hegmann Elda
Publication year - 2017
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.201600278
Subject(s) - elastomer , biocompatible material , liquid crystal , materials science , copolymer , porosity , anisotropy , side chain , chemistry , dispersion (optics) , nanotechnology , composite material , biomedical engineering , optoelectronics , polymer , optics , medicine , physics
The authors report on series of side‐chain smectic liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) cell scaffolds based on star block‐copolymers featuring 3‐arm, 4‐arm, and 6‐arm central nodes. A particular focus of these studies is placed on the mechanical properties of these LCEs and their impact on cell response. The introduction of diverse central nodes allows to alter and custom‐modify the mechanical properties of LCE scaffolds to values on the same order of magnitude of various tissues of interest. In addition, it is continued to vary the position of the LC pendant group. The central node and the position of cholesterol pendants in the backbone of ε‐CL blocks (alpha and gamma series) affect the mechanical properties as well as cell proliferation and particularly cell alignment. Cell directionality tests are presented demonstrating that several LCE scaffolds show cell attachment, proliferation, narrow orientational dispersion of cells, and highly anisotropic cell growth on the as‐synthesized LCE materials.