Gelatin-based Thiol/Disulfide Degradable Hydrogels to Encapsulate Cells

摘要

We showed the encapsulation of ASCs into hydrogel microdroplets. Preliminary studies show the crosslinking of thiolated gelatin with a PEG-maleimide crosslinker. Current efforts are focused on the encapsulation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These are the prototypic mammalian stem cell, with a long-history of clinical use, enabling the investigation of critical questions with direct clinical results. Designed to also contain supporting niche cells, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) can be leveraged to study heterotypic cultures in HSC lineage decisions. This new hydrogel system will be optimized to show encapsulation of HSCs, and the proposed maleimide-disulfide crosslinker will allow for the controlled degradation to extract cells and perform various studies. Furthermore, this hydrogel system can also be scaled to larger macrogels and bioinks to investigate matrix remodeling and study the changes in cell population based on structural and biomolecular gradients that can be incorporated.