Engineered hydrogels for mechanobiology

Ulrich Blache; Eden M Ford; Byunghang Ha; Laura Rijns; Ovijit Chaudhuri; Patricia Y W Dankers; April M Kloxin; Jess G Snedeker; Eileen Gentleman

doi:10.1038/s43586-022-00179-7

Engineered hydrogels for mechanobiology

Nat Rev Methods Primers. 2022 Dec 15:2:98. doi: 10.1038/s43586-022-00179-7.

Authors

Ulrich Blache¹, Eden M Ford², Byunghang Ha³, Laura Rijns⁴, Ovijit Chaudhuri³, Patricia Y W Dankers⁴, April M Kloxin^{2

5}, Jess G Snedeker⁶, Eileen Gentleman⁷

Affiliations

¹ Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology and Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence for Immune-Mediated Disease, Leipzig, Germany.
² Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, DE, USA.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA.
⁴ Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, DE, USA.
⁶ University Hospital Balgrist and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁷ Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, UK.

Abstract

Cells' local mechanical environment can be as important in guiding cellular responses as many well-characterized biochemical cues. Hydrogels that mimic the native extracellular matrix can provide these mechanical cues to encapsulated cells, allowing for the study of their impact on cellular behaviours. Moreover, by harnessing cellular responses to mechanical cues, hydrogels can be used to create tissues in vitro for regenerative medicine applications and for disease modelling. This Primer outlines the importance and challenges of creating hydrogels that mimic the mechanical and biological properties of the native extracellular matrix. The design of hydrogels for mechanobiology studies is discussed, including appropriate choice of cross-linking chemistry and strategies to tailor hydrogel mechanical cues. Techniques for characterizing hydrogels are explained, highlighting methods used to analyze cell behaviour. Example applications for studying fundamental mechanobiological processes and regenerative therapies are provided, along with a discussion of the limitations of hydrogels as mimetics of the native extracellular matrix. The article ends with an outlook for the field, focusing on emerging technologies that will enable new insights into mechanobiology and its role in tissue homeostasis and disease.