Publications

Hydrogels crosslinked with PEG-Link, CD-Link or a mixture of the two were generated to examine cellular mechanosensing in response to hydrogel stress relaxation. Stress relaxation was induced by treatment of gels with collagenase (2D cell culture on top of the gels) or by MMPs produced by the cells (3D cell culture). While the hydrogel stiffness after stress relaxation remained similar, cell behavior changed. These results suggest that cells sense changes of stress relaxation due to matrix degradation. The authors stress the significance of this type of cellular mechanosensing for engineering biomaterials for regenerative medicine.