AN INJECTABLE HYDROGEL SYSTEM WITH UNQIUE TUNABLE STIFFNESS FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING

Abstract

It is recognized that tissue cells feel and respond to the stiffness of their substrate and consequently regulate many important physiological functions. This highlights the importance of incorporating the physical variables into materials design particularly for tissue engineering application. An appropriate material system is greatly needed to understand and demonstrate role of stiffness in various cell functions in a three-dimensional (3D) environment for furthering the cell-based therapies in vivo as the cells behave more physiologically in 3D. In this thesis, an enzyme-mediated crosslinked injectable hydrogel system with unique independent tuning of stiffness was developed for such need. This system has overcome the limitations of existing hydrogel systems such as their inherent toxicity of polymers and crosslinkers, poor cell adhesiveness, limitation in stiffness control or difficulties being integrated into clinical procedures. Controls of cell adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation by the stiffness of this hydrogel system were successfully achieved.