Macrophage Phenotypic Changes on FN-Coated Physical Gradient Hydrogels.

The chemical and physical properties are two crucial cues when designing tissue engineering scaffold to mimic living tissue. Macrophages, the major players in the immune response, react rapidly to microenvironmental signals, including gradients of physical or chemical cues. Spatiotemporal gradients can modulate cell behavior, such as polarization, proliferation, and adhesion.

Organoids.

Organoids have attracted increasing attention because they are simple tissue-engineered cell-based models that recapitulate many aspects of the complex structure and function of the corresponding tissue. They can be dissected and interrogated for fundamental mechanistic studies on development, regeneration, and repair in human tissues. Organoids can also be used in diagnostics, disease modeling, drug discovery, and personalized medicine.

Soft materials as biological and artificial membranes.

The past few decades have seen emerging growth in the field of soft materials for synthetic biology. This review focuses on soft materials involved in biological and artificial membranes. The biological membranes discussed here are mainly those involved in the structure and function of cells and organelles.

Gellan gum-gelatin viscoelastic hydrogels as scaffolds to promote fibroblast differentiation.

Fabricating hydrogel scaffolds that are both bioreactive toward fibroblasts while still mechanically compatible with surrounding tissue is a major challenge in tissue engineering. This is because the outcome of scaffold implantation is largely determined by fibroblasts differentiating toward myofibroblasts, which is characterized by the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Previous studies promoted fibroblasts differentiation by increasing scaffold substrate stiffness.

Effect of RGD functionalization and stiffness of gellan gum hydrogels on macrophage polarization and function.

Macrophages, the primary effector cells in the immune response, respond rapidly to the physical or chemical properties of biomaterial implants. Balanced macrophage polarization, phagocytosis, and migration would be beneficial for implant success and tissue regeneration. Here, we investigated macrophage phenotypic changes, phagocytosis, and migration in response to RGD functionalized surfaces and changes in stiffness of gellan gum hydrogels.