Cellular modulation by the mechanical cues from biomaterials for tissue engineering

Qiang Wei, Shenghao Wang, Feng Han, Huan Wang, Weidong Zhang, Qifan Yu, Changjiang Liu, Luguang Ding, Jiayuan Wang, Lili Yu, Caihong Zhu, Bin Li

Figure 4. Schematic diagram showing the molecular mechanism of the changes undergone by viscoelastic hydrogels when subjected to an external force. (A) Polyacrylamide-based hydrogels with different loss moduli varied through the movement of loose ends of polymer chains, or the loosing of entangled linear polyacrylamide. (B) Physically cross-linked hydrogels with varying viscoelasticity through the breaking of ionic interactions, hydrogen bonding, guest-host interactions, etc. In particular, for ionically cross-linked hydrogels, the viscoelasticity can also be tuned by incorporating covalent cross-linkers and polymer spacers. (C) Chemically-dynamic cross-linked hydrogels which change through the dissociation of chemical covalent bonds.