Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University , 360 Huntington Avenue, 313 SN, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.
Biomacromolecules. 2017 May 8;18(5):1473-1481. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.6b01898. Epub 2017 Apr 20.
The development of synthetic and well-defined extracellular matrices that are free of xenogeneic components and are capable of inducing desired cellular responses holds great potential for use in vitro as 3D cell culture environments and in vivo as scaffolds for tissue regeneration. In this study, the impact of free and partially occupied epoxide groups on the viability, activity, and behavior of rat fibroblasts encapsulated in thermoresponsive hydrogels based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNiPAAm) was investigated. While fibroblasts encapsulated in neat pNiPAAm remained rounded and showed significant toxicity by 5 days, those encapsulated in the epoxide-modified thermogels demonstrated not only high viability but also an ability to proliferate, attach, produce extracellular matrix (ECM) components, and cluster. The results demonstrated that the presence of free epoxide groups led to the local conjugation of available proteins to produce a modified structure in situ, which supported cell viability, activity, and cluster formation within the hydrogel.
合成的、具有明确结构且不含异种成分的细胞外基质具有很大的潜力，可用于体外三维细胞培养环境和体内组织再生支架。在这项研究中，研究了游离和部分占据的环氧化物基团对包封在基于聚（N-异丙基丙烯酰胺）（pNiPAAm）的温敏水凝胶中的大鼠成纤维细胞的活力、活性和行为的影响。虽然包封在纯 pNiPAAm 中的成纤维细胞保持圆形，并且在 5 天时表现出明显的毒性，但那些包封在环氧化物修饰的温敏水凝胶中的成纤维细胞不仅表现出高活力，而且还能够增殖、附着、产生细胞外基质（ECM）成分和聚集。结果表明，游离环氧化物基团的存在导致可用蛋白质的局部缀合，从而在原位产生修饰结构，支持水凝胶内细胞的活力、活性和聚集形成。
