Photoreactive Hydrogel Stiffness Influences Volumetric Muscle Loss Repair.

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) injuries are characterized by permanent loss of muscle mass, structure, and function. Hydrogel biomaterials provide an attractive platform for skeletal muscle tissue engineering due to the ability to easily modulate their biophysical and biochemical properties to match a range of tissue characteristics. In this work, we successfully developed a mechanically tunable hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel system to investigate the influence of hydrogel stiffness on VML repair.