초록 |
Control over the mechanical properties of hydrogels is of key importance to enable various cell-hydrogel interactions. Natural tissues and organs exhibit gradient physical cues depending on the depth or location and it regulates various cellular behaviors such as proliferation, differentiation, and migration during development, inflammation, and wound healing. However conventional hydrogels have a homogeneous environment with an isotropic distribution limiting complete mimicking of the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). In this work, we report hydrogel with gradient mechanical properties using hyaluronic acid which is a natural polymer and an excellent candidate for use in tissue engineering due to its excellent biocompatibility and bio-functions. We successfully prepared the gradient hydrogel via photocrosslinking method and the gradient hydrogel was characterized and assessed the feasibility of biomedical applications. |