Structural characterization of fibrous synthetic hydrogels using fluorescence microscopy

Vandaele, Johannes; Louis, Boris; Liu, Kaizheng; Camacho, Rafael; Kouwer, Paul H. J.; Rocha, Susana

doi:10.1039/c9sm01828j

Cited by 36 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The Young's modulus of the hydrogels without and with mTGase treatment were measured to be 2.4 ± 0.4 kPa and 3.5 ± 0.5 kPa for G, 0.6 ± 0.1 kPa and 2.8 ± 0.7 kPa for GE, 14.4 ± 1.8 kPa and 24.5 ± 2.9 kPa for GM, 9.9 ± 2.6 kPa and 18.4 ± 2.8 kPa for GME, respectively (n≥3 for all). The improved elastic modulus of GM hydrogels is most likely resulting from the increased polymer concentration and crosslinking sites [40]. These results also demonstrate that mTGase treatment improved the Young's modulus of the hydrogels which is in agreement with results shown in previous studies [32,41].…”

Section: Mechanical Characterization and Swellingsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In this study, dual crosslinking allowed further crosslinking of GelMA without altering MeHA polymers. It is well-known that higher crosslinking density results in smaller pore sizes [40]. We hypothesize that this is the reason for the reduced swelling ratio in the GelMA gels and plan to expand upon these findings in future studies.…”

Section: Mechanical Characterization and Swellingmentioning

confidence: 64%

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Tunable human myocardium derived decellularized extracellular matrix for 3D bioprinting and cardiac tissue engineering

Basara

Ozcebe

Ellis

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The generation of 3D tissue constructs with multiple cell types and matching mechanical properties remains a challenge in cardiac tissue engineering. Recently, 3D bioprinting has become a powerful tool to achieve these goals. Decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) is a common scaffold material due to providing a native biochemical environment. Unfortunately, low mechanical stability of dECM prevents usage for bioprinting applications alone. In this study, we developed bioinks composed of decellularized human heart ECM (dhECM) with either gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) or GelMA- methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) hydrogels dual crosslinked with UV light and microbial Transglutaminase (mTGase). We characterized mechanical, rheological, swelling, printability and biocompatibility properties of the bioinks. Composite GelMA-MeHA-dhECM (GME) hydrogels demonstrated improved mechanical properties by an order of magnitude, compared to GelMA-dhECM (GE) hydrogels. All hydrogels were extrudable and compatible with human induced pluripotent stem cells derived cardiomyocytes (iCMs) and human cardiac fibroblasts (hCFs). Tissue-like beating of the printed constructs with striated sarcomeric alpha-actinin and Connexin 43 expression was observed. The order of magnitude difference between the elastic modulus of these hydrogel composites offers applications in in vitro modelling of the myocardial infarct boundary. Here, as a proof of concept, we created an infarct boundary region with control over mechanical properties along with cellular and macromolecular content through printing iCMs with GE bioink and hCFs with GME bioink.

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Section: Mechanical Characterization and Swellingsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Mechanical Characterization and Swellingmentioning

confidence: 64%

Tunable human myocardium derived decellularized extracellular matrix for 3D bioprinting and cardiac tissue engineering

Basara

Ozcebe

Ellis

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Young’s modulus of the hydrogels without and with mTGase treatment was measured to be 2.4 ± 0.4 kPa and 3.5 ± 0.5 kPa for G, 0.6 ± 0.1 kPa and 2.8 ± 0.7 kPa for GE, 14.4 ± 1.8 kPa and 24.5 ± 2.9 kPa for GM, and 9.9 ± 2.6 kPa and 18.4 ± 2.8 kPa for GME, respectively ( n ≥ 3 for all). The improved elastic modulus of the GM hydrogels most likely resulted from the increased polymer concentration and crosslinking sites [ 48 ]. These results also demonstrate that mTGase treatment improved the Young’s modulus of the hydrogels, which is in agreement with the results shown in previous studies [ 33 , 49 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable Human Myocardium Derived Decellularized Extracellular Matrix for 3D Bioprinting and Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Basara

Ozcebe

Ellis

et al. 2021

Gels

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The generation of 3D tissue constructs with multiple cell types and matching mechanical properties remains a challenge in cardiac tissue engineering. Recently, 3D bioprinting has become a powerful tool to achieve these goals. Decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) is a common scaffold material due to providing a native biochemical environment. Unfortunately, dECM’s low mechanical stability prevents usage for bioprinting applications alone. In this study, we developed bioinks composed of decellularized human heart ECM (dhECM) with either gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) or GelMA-methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) hydrogels dual crosslinked with UV light and microbial transglutaminase (mTGase). We characterized the bioinks’ mechanical, rheological, swelling, printability, and biocompatibility properties. Composite GelMA–MeHA–dhECM (GME) hydrogels demonstrated improved mechanical properties by an order of magnitude compared to the GelMA–dhECM (GE) hydrogels. All hydrogels were extrudable and compatible with human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (iCMs) and human cardiac fibroblasts (hCFs). Tissue-like beating of the printed constructs with striated sarcomeric alpha-actinin and connexin 43 expression was observed. The order of magnitude difference between the elastic modulus of these hydrogel composites offers applications in in vitro modeling of the myocardial infarct boundary. Here, as a proof of concept, we created an infarct boundary region with control over the mechanical properties along with the cellular and macromolecular content through printing iCMs with GE bioink and hCFs with GME bioink.

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“…Each monomer further carries oligo(ethylene glycol) units that cause a phase transition when increasing the temperature above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Upon heating, the polymers become hydrophobic and start to bundle, thereby forming a physically crosslinked hydrogel network at very low concentrations (Kouwer et al, 2013 ; Jaspers et al, 2014 ; Vandaele et al, 2020 ). Stress-stiffening PIC networks thus have the potential to serve as synthetic mimics of the cytoskeleton (Jaspers et al, 2017 ) and the ECM (Das et al, 2016 ), both for fundamental studies and for cell culture applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Network Topology on the Viscoelastic Properties of Dynamically Crosslinked Hydrogels

et al. 2020

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Structural characterization of fibrous synthetic hydrogels using fluorescence microscopy

Abstract: The structural features of the matrix surrounding the cells play a crucial role in regulating their behavior.

Cited by 36 publications

References 43 publications

Tunable human myocardium derived decellularized extracellular matrix for 3D bioprinting and cardiac tissue engineering

Tunable human myocardium derived decellularized extracellular matrix for 3D bioprinting and cardiac tissue engineering

Tunable Human Myocardium Derived Decellularized Extracellular Matrix for 3D Bioprinting and Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Influence of Network Topology on the Viscoelastic Properties of Dynamically Crosslinked Hydrogels

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