A Versatile Biosynthetic Hydrogel Platform for Engineering of Tissue Analogues
Klotz, Barbara J; Oosterhoff, Loes A; Utomo, Lizette; Lim, Khoon S; Vallmajo-Martin, Queralt; Clevers, Hans; Woodfield, Tim B F; Rosenberg, Antoine J W P; Malda, Jos; Ehrbar, Martin; Spee, Bart; Gawlitta, Debby
(2019) Advanced Healthcare Materials, volume 8, issue 19
(Article)
Abstract
For creating functional tissue analogues in tissue engineering, stem cells require very specific 3D microenvironments to thrive and mature. Demanding (stem) cell types that are used nowadays can find such an environment in a heterogeneous protein mixture with the trade name Matrigel. Several variations of synthetic hydrogel platforms composed of
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poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), which are spiked with peptides, have been recently developed and shown equivalence to Matrigel for stem cell differentiation. Here a clinically relevant hydrogel platform, based on PEG and gelatin, which even outperforms Matrigel when targeting 3D prevascularized bone and liver organoid tissue engineering models is presented. The hybrid hydrogel with natural and synthetic components stimulates efficient cell differentiation, superior to Matrigel models. Furthermore, the strength of this hydrogel lies in the option to covalently incorporate unmodified proteins. These results demonstrate how a hybrid hydrogel platform with intermediate biological complexity, when compared to existing biological materials and synthetic PEG-peptide approaches, can efficiently support tissue development from human primary cells.
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Keywords: FXIII, Matrigel, gelatin, liver organoids, osteogenesis, polyethylene glycol, vasculogenesis, Biomedical Engineering, Biomaterials, Pharmaceutical Science, Journal Article
ISSN: 2192-2640
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Note: Funding Information: The authors are grateful to Mies van Steenbergen who gave support with rheological and compressive measurements at Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University. Further, Chris van Dijk (RMCU) is acknowledged for help with transduction of ECFCs with GFP. The authors acknowledge Mattie van Rijen (RMCU) for his contributions to histological stainings. This research project was partially funded by the European Union FP7-MC-IRSES ?SkelGEN? project under grant agreement n?318553, and the European Research Council (ERC) (3D-JOINT, #647426). K.L. wishes to acknowledge funding by New Zealand Health Research Council Emerging Researcher First Grant (15/483). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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