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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 49: Posters - Cell Mechanics and Migration & Physics of Cancer

BP 49.16: Poster

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 17:00–19:00, Poster C

Mechanically tunable biomimetic hyaluronic acid based hydrogels — Frederike Derksen, Gevin von Witte, and •Florian Rehfeldt — Third Institute of Physics - Biophysics, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany

Mechanical properties of the microenvironment of cells, e.g. matrix elasticity, influence many aspects of cell behavior including morphology, motility and even more complex processes such as differentiation. Therefore, it is important to design and characterize hydrogels for cell culture that resemble the in vivo environment of cells.

Cross-linked hyaluronic acid (HA) matrices offer an alternative to conventionally used polyacrylamide hydrogels as HA is biocompatible and therefore not toxic for cells. Using different thiol modifications of HA, we prepare hydrogels with a well-defined elasticity in the physiologically relevant range of E = 0.1 kPa to 100 kPa, which is much softer than glass or tissue culture plastic. Coatings with RGD peptide allow cell adhesion leaving hydrogel mechanics independently tunable. Hybrid gels with thiol modified recombinant human gelatin enable the preparation of 3D culture environments by embedding cells during hydrogel polymerization. Gelation kinetics of the hydrogels were investigated by rheology using oscillatory deformation tests. Both the storage modulus G' as well as the loss modulus G'' were measured in order to analyze the viscoelastic properties of the cross-linked hydrogels. The morphological and cytoskeletal responses of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) to different elasticities and hydrogel compositions were investigated both in 2D and 3D cultures.