Cell alignment fabrication using stretchable hydrogels with programmable strain gradients

Abstract eng:
The mechanical gradients (e. g., stiffness and stress/strain gradients) of extracellular matrix play an important role in guiding cellular alignment, especially in tendons and muscles. Though various methods have been developed to engineer graded mechanical environment to study its effect on cellular behaviours, most of them failed to distinguish stiffness effect from stress/strain effect during mechanical loading. Here, we construct a mechanical environment with strain gradients by using a hydro gel of a linear elastic property. We demonstrate that the pattern of cellular alignment can be rather precisely tailored by substrate strains. The experiment is in consistency with a theoretical prediction when assuming that focal adhesions would drive cell to reorient to the directions where they are most stable. This work not only provides important insights into the cellular response to local mechanical microenvironment, but can also be utilized to engineer patterned cellular alignment that can be critical in tissue remodelling applications.

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