Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2020 Feb;107:110333. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2019.110333. Epub 2019 Oct 23.
The mechanical environment of extracellular matrix (ECM) plays an important role in adjusting the behaviors of cells. Natural ECM are highly viscoelastic materials with stress-relaxion behavior. Hydrogel is considered as a promising and attractive material for cell carrier, but they are typically elastic serving as synthetic ECM. Double-network (DN) hydrogel has an interpenetrating network of special structure combining the advantages of both rigid and ductile components, due to which the mechanical properties of the system can be very different from that of the single-network ones, and some special biological properties can be obtained. In this study, GG/PEGDA DN hydrogel was prepared by combining gellan gum (GG) with polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), and then the influence of the two individual networks on the viscoelasticity of the system were investigated. Furthermore, the effects of viscoelasticity of GG/PEGDA DN hydrogel on the biological behavior of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were explored in vitro and in vivo. The results indicate that the spreading of BMSCs was closely related to the relaxation behavior of the hydrogels. GG/PEGDA DN hydrogel shows excellent mechanical and relaxation properties which provide a favorable physical environment for cell proliferation and spreading, and induce chondrogenic differentiation. Our study demonstrates that this DN hydrogel has bright prospects in the fields of cell carrier and cartilage tissue engineering.
细胞外基质（ECM）的力学环境在调节细胞行为方面起着重要作用。天然 ECM 是具有应力松弛行为的高粘性弹性材料。水凝胶被认为是一种有前途和有吸引力的细胞载体材料，但它们通常是作为合成 ECM 的弹性材料。双网络（DN）水凝胶具有特殊结构的互穿网络，结合了刚性和韧性成分的优点，因此系统的力学性能可能与单网络的力学性能非常不同，并可以获得一些特殊的生物学特性。在这项研究中，通过将结冷胶（GG）与聚乙二醇二丙烯酸酯（PEGDA）结合，制备了 GG/PEGDA DN 水凝胶，然后研究了两个单独的网络对系统粘弹性的影响。此外，还研究了 GG/PEGDA DN 水凝胶的粘弹性对骨髓间充质干细胞（BMSCs）体外和体内生物学行为的影响。结果表明，BMSCs 的铺展与水凝胶的松弛行为密切相关。GG/PEGDA DN 水凝胶具有优异的力学性能和松弛性能，为细胞增殖和铺展提供了有利的物理环境，并诱导软骨分化。我们的研究表明，这种 DN 水凝胶在细胞载体和软骨组织工程领域具有广阔的应用前景。
