Khetan Sudhir, Chung Cindy, Burdick Jason A
Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104 USA.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009;2009:2094-6. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5332484.
Biomaterial design is an important component towards tissue engineering applications. There are many parameters that may be adjusted including physical properties (i.e., degradation and mechanics) and chemical properties (e.g., adhesion and cellular interactions). These design components may dictate the success or failure of a tissue engineering approach. Our group is particularly interested in the use of swollen hydrogels as cell carriers. One material that is used to fabricate hydrogels is hyaluronic acid (HA), which is found in many tissues in the body. Here, we show the control over hydrogel degradation, both in the bulk and locally to cells to control both the distribution of extracellular matrix by cells and whether or not a cell spreads in the hydrogels. These signals are important in the final structure and mechanical properties of engineered tissues, and potentially the differentiation of encapsulated stem cells.
生物材料设计是组织工程应用的一个重要组成部分。有许多参数可以调整，包括物理性质（如降解和力学性能）和化学性质（如粘附和细胞相互作用）。这些设计要素可能决定组织工程方法的成败。我们的团队对使用溶胀水凝胶作为细胞载体特别感兴趣。一种用于制造水凝胶的材料是透明质酸（HA），它存在于人体的许多组织中。在这里，我们展示了对水凝胶降解的控制，包括整体降解和对细胞的局部降解，以控制细胞外基质的分布以及细胞是否在水凝胶中铺展。这些信号对工程组织的最终结构和力学性能很重要，并且可能对封装的干细胞的分化也很重要。
