Functional Hydrogels as Controlled Microenvironments for Probing and Directing Cell Differentiation and Fate

摘要

Hydrogel-based materials with highly controlled properties are increasingly used as culture platforms and cell delivery vehicles to understand and direct stem cell fate. In particular, control of the hydrogel structure and chemistry is important in these applications towards understanding and mimicking the dynamic nature of the native extracellular matrix (ECM). The microenvironment that surrounds a cell is complex and dynamic, presenting biochemical signals, such as growth factors, hormones, and ECM proteins with integrin binding sequences, and biophysical cues, such as fibrillar structure and modulus. These microenvironment signals influence cellular functions, such as differentiation, migration, and protein secretion, leading to cellular remodeling of the ECM, a process of dynamic reciprocity. Towards recapturing this in vitro, selective degradability can be incorporated within hydrogel culture platforms by the addition of cleavable groups within the gel-forming monomers, including enzymatically and/or photolytically cleavable functionalities.