Bottom-up approaches in the rational design of synthetic scaffolds rely on understandings of the biological information present in naturally-occurring complex biological materials such as extracellular matrix. Since this is an area not yet fully explored, the naturally occurring scaffolds themselves hold advantages over their synthetic counterparts. The putative utility of a purified Wharton jelly scaffold stems from its complex assemblage of naturally-occurring glycosaminoglycans including hyaluronic acid (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS), as well as others. In this simple study we have begun the process of characterizing this interesting biomaterial with potential applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In addition to strong compositional contributions from HA and CS, we have found a material tunable to a wide range of mechanical properties as well as a substrate favorable to cell growth.
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