PC12 Behavior in Modular Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Scaffolds: Effects of Stiffness and Protein Concentration

摘要

Using both phase contrast microscopy and dynamic light scattering, the average diameter of the PEGmicrogels was tound to be approximately 1.6 [xm. The relatively low polydispersity of the microgels indicates that these microspheres can be fabricated with a very narrow size range, as typically seen in microgels formed using a precipitation polymerization technique [10]. Mechanical evaluation of the PEG gels demonstrated that as the concentration of collagen increased, macrogel stiffness remained constant. One possible reason for this is that the addition of protein to the macrogel serves only to crosslink the gel, rather than altering the chain lengthening process, as seen in bulk PEG gels [2]. Neural response was found to be increased as collagen concentration increased within gels, a trend which has been previously reported [2]. PC 12 aggregate size was increased in macrogels as compared to bulk PEG gels. In addition, macrogels exhibited cell viability levels larger than those seen in bulk PEG gels. Both of these results indicate that macrogel assembly may be gentler on encapsulated cells than in bulk gels. The use of modular scaffolds for use in tissue engineering applications is very exciting and further investigation of these materials for tissue engineering applications is necessary.