Conditioning the microenvironment for soft tissue regeneration in a cell free scaffold.

The use of cell-free scaffolds for the regeneration of clinically relevant volumes of soft tissue has been challenged, particularly in the case of synthetic biomaterials, by the difficulty of reconciling the manufacturing and biological performance requirements. Here, we investigated in vivo the importance of biomechanical and biochemical cues for conditioning the 3D regenerative microenvironment towards soft tissue formation. In particular, we evaluated the adipogenesis changes related to 3D mechanical properties by creating a gradient of 3D microenvironments with different stiffnesses using 3D Poly(Urethane-Ester-ether) PUEt scaffolds.