Hydrogels with reversible chemical environments for in vitro cell culture.

Methods to reversibly control the chemical environment of hydrogels have application in three-dimensional cell culture to study cell proliferation, migration and differentiation in environments more representative of in vivo environments. Herein, we have developed a method to temporally control the chemical environment of agarose hydrogels through non-covalent attachment of peptide motifs. Streptavidin-GRGDS conjugates were immobilized in desthiobiotin-modified agarose hydrogels through the desthiobiotin-streptavidin interaction (K 10 M).