Cell‐Laden Gradient Hydrogel Scaffolds for Neovascularization of Engineered Tissues

xloma.fota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Cell‐Laden Gradient Hydrogel Scaffolds for Neovascularization of Engineered Tissues Via Advanced Healthcare Materials Vascular cell‐laden gradient PEG hydrogels with five types of gradient combinations including immobilized cell adhesion peptide concentration (RGD), stiffness, and protease‐sensitivity are designed to investigate their role on spatial variations in vascular sprouting responses in 3D culture Abstract Gradients in mechanical properties, physical architecture and biochemical composition exist in a variety of complex tissues, yet 3D in vitro models that enable investigation of these cues on cellular processes, especially those contributing to vascularization of engineered tissues are limited. Here, a photopolymerization approach to create cell‐laden hydrogel biomaterials with decoupled and combined gradients in modulus, immobilized cell adhesive peptide (RGD) concentration, and proteolytic degradation enabling spatial encapsulation of vascular spheroids is reported to elucidate their impact on vascular sprouting in 3D culture. Vascular spheroids encapsulated in these gradient scaffolds exhibit spatial variations in total sprout length. Scaffolds presenting an immobilized RGD gradient promote biased vascular sprouting toward increasing RGD concentration. Importantly, biased sprouting is found to be dependent on immobilized RGD gradient characteristics, including magnitude and sl ope, with increases in these factors contributing to significant enhancements in biased sprouting responses. Conversely, reduction in biased sprouting responses is observed in combined gradient scaffolds possessing opposing gradients in RGD and modulus. The presented work is the first to demonstrate the use of a cell‐laden biomaterial platform to systematically investigate the role of multiple scaffold gradients as well as gradient slope, magnitude and orientation on vascular sprouting responses in 3D culture. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.