Journal
BIOPOLYMERS
Volume 110, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/bip.23241
Keywords
biomimetics; gelatin; hydrogels; rheology
Categories
Funding
- Danish National Research Foundation [DNRF122]
- Danish Council for Independent Research Sciences, Technology and Production [DFF 4004-00120B]
- Villum Foundation [9301]
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Cell or tissue stretching and strain are present in any in vivo environment, but is difficult to reproduce in vitro. Here, we describe a simple method for casting a thin (about 500 mu m) and soft (about 0.3 kPa) hydrogel of gelatin and a method for characterizing the mechanical properties of the hydrogel simply by changing pressure with a water column. The gelatin is crosslinked with mTransglutaminase and the area of the resulting hydrogel can be increased up 13-fold by increasing the radial water pressure. This is far beyond physiological stretches observed in vivo. Actuating the hydrogel with a radial force achieves both information about stiffness, stretchability, and contractability, which are relevant properties for tissue engineering purposes. Cells could be stretched and contracted using the gelatin membrane. Gelatin is a commonly used polymer for hydrogels in tissue engineering, and the discovered reversible stretching is particularly interesting for organ modeling applications.
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