Investigating the Role of Polydopamine to Modulate Stem Cell Adhesion and Proliferation on Gellan Gum-Based Hydrogels.

Gellan gum-based hydrogels display limited cell adhesion ability due to the absence of cell-anchorage points usually present in proteins found in the extracellular matrix (ECM). This issue limits their use in the biomedical field as scaffolds to promote tissue repair. Our work addresses this challenge by investigating the use of polydopamine (pDA) as a bioactive layer to improve the surface and biological properties of gellan gum-based hydrogels cross-linked using carbodiimide chemistry.