Electron beam treated injectable agarose/alginate beads prepared by electrospraying.

Granular hydrogels have evolved into an innovative technology for biomedicine. Unlike conventional hydrogels, granular hydrogels display dynamic properties like injectability and porosity, making them feasible for applications in 3D bioprinting and tissue engineering. High-energy electron irradiation combines sterilization and tuning of hydrogel properties without adding potentially cytotoxic chemicals.

Electron Beam-Treated Enzymatically Mineralized Gelatin Hydrogels for Bone Tissue Engineering.

Biological hydrogels are highly promising materials for bone tissue engineering (BTE) due to their high biocompatibility and biomimetic characteristics. However, for advanced and customized BTE, precise tools for material stabilization and tuning material properties are desired while optimal mineralisation must be ensured. Therefore, reagent-free crosslinking techniques such as high energy electron beam treatment promise effective material modifications without formation of cytotoxic by-products.

Impact of high-energy electron irradiation on mechanical, structural and chemical properties of agarose hydrogels.

Due to their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, natural hydrogels are highly demanded biomaterials for biomedical applications such as wound dressing, tissue engineering, drug delivery or three dimensional cell culture. Highly energetic electron irradiation up to 10 MeV is a powerful and fast tool to sterilize and tailor the material's properties. In this study, electron radiation treatment of agarose hydrogels was investigated to evaluate radiation effects on physical, structural and chemical properties.

Contact Guidance by Microstructured Gelatin Hydrogels for Prospective Tissue Engineering Applications.

Design of functionalized biomimetic scaffolds is one of the key approaches for regenerative medicine and other biomedical applications. Development of engineered tissue should optimize organization and function of cells and tissue in vitro as well as in vivo. Surface topography is one factor controlling cellular behavior and tissue development.

Programing stimuli-responsiveness of gelatin with electron beams: basic effects and development of a hydration-controlled biocompatible demonstrator.

Biomimetic materials with programmable stimuli responsiveness constitute a highly attractive material class for building bioactuators, sensors and active control elements in future biomedical applications. With this background, we demonstrate how energetic electron beams can be utilized to construct tailored stimuli responsive actuators for biomedical applications. Composed of collagen-derived gelatin, they reveal a mechanical response to hydration and changes in pH-value and ion concentration, while maintaining their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability.

The phenotype of cancer cell invasion controlled by fibril diameter and pore size of 3D collagen networks.

The behavior of cancer cells is strongly influenced by the properties of extracellular microenvironments, including topology, mechanics and composition. As topological and mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix are hard to access and control for in-depth studies of underlying mechanisms in vivo, defined biomimetic in vitro models are needed. Herein we show, how pore size and fibril diameter of collagen I networks distinctively regulate cancer cell morphology and invasion.