Amyloid fibril-based thixotropic hydrogels for modeling of tumor spheroids in vitro.

Biomaterials mimicking extracellular matrices (ECM) for three-dimensional (3D) cultures have gained immense interest in tumor modeling and in vitro organ development. Here, we introduce a new class of amyloid fibril-based peptide hydrogels as a versatile biomimetic ECM scaffold for 3D cell culture and homogenous tumor spheroid modeling. We show that these amyloid fibril-based hydrogels are thixotropic and allow cancer cell adhesion, proliferation, and migration.