Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 22: Posters - Biomaterials and Biopolymers

BP 22.6: Poster

Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 14:00–16:00, P1A

Novel Hybrid hydrogel substrates with non-linear elastic response — •Christina Jayachandran and Florian Rehfeldt — Third Institute of Physics, Georg- August Universität

It has been shown in the recent past that the responses of cells depend upon their environment's physical and chemical properties. Cultured on conventional collagen coated polyacrylamide (PA) gels, cells only feel the linear elastic behaviour, in contrast to native extracellular matrix's non-linear elastic response.

Here, we present novel hybrid hydrogels that mimic the heterogeneous structure and the non-linear elastic behaviour of connective tissue by incorporating collagen fibrils into PA hydrogels. We tuned the Young's modulus over a broad physiologically relevant range and investigated the responses of adult human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). On soft hybrid gels, hMSCs behave significantly different than on collagen coated gels of the same stiffness, exhibiting a typical morphology known from stiff environments. Fluorescence imaging of hybrid gels revealed that stem cells locally re-organize the underlying collagen fibrils. These findings implicate that the responses of stem cells are largely dependent on the non-linear elasticity of their environment.