Abstract Details
| Presented By: | Fairbanks, Benjamin |
| Affiliated with: | University of Colorado, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering |
| Authors: | Benjamin D. Fairbanks, Michael P. Schwartz, Samir P. Singh, Christopher N. Bowman, Kristi S. Anseth |
| From: | University of Colorado |
Title
Abstract
Synthetic hydrogels with engineered, cell-mediated degradation sites are an important category of biomimetic materials. Here is presented the synthesis of hydrogels via a radically-mediated, step-growth thiol-norbornene photopolymerization between norbornene functionalized, multi-armed poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and cysteine-containing peptides. This reaction combines the advantages of ideal, homogeneous polymer network formation, facile incorporation of peptides without post-synthetic modification, and spatial and temporal control over the network evolution into a single system to produce proteolytically degradable PEG-peptide hydrogels. Rapid gelation times are achieved while maintaining high viability during and for one week following encapsulations of a fibrosarcoma cell line (HT1080). Cellular division within these 3D nonporous hydrogels is observed directly via real time microscopy while net cell proliferation is confirmed by manual cell counting. The enzyme and cell responsive characteristics of the hydrogel are demonstrated by tailoring the migration of HT1080s through the density of the adhesion peptide RGDS. Furthermore, by the facile incorporation of a fluorophore and corresponding quencher within the peptide crosslinker, the fate of degradation products as well as the enzymatic degradation within the material is elicited by FRET examination with confocal microscopy. The high degree of spatial and temporal control over gelation, the biochemical simplicity and robust material properties, make thiol-ene hydrogels an excellent tool for the study of cancer cell migration in vitro.