Engineering hydrogels with homogeneous mechanical properties for controlling stem cell lineage specification

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2110961118
• Publication Date: 2021-09-14T18:01:10Z
• Authors: Bin Xue; Dehua Tang; Xin Wu; Zhengyu Xu; Jie Gu; Yueying Han; Zhenshu Zhu; Meng Qin; Xiaoping Zou; Wei Wang; Yi Cao
• Keywords: Mechanotransduction; Regenerative Medicine; mechanobiology

Significance Hydrogels are extensively used for cell culture, tissue engineering, and flexible electronics. In all of these applications, mechanical properties hydrogels play an important role. Although tremendous studies have been devoted to optimizing the stiffness, strain, toughness, dynamic response, homogeneity has rarely considered. By developing a general strategy control hydrogels, here we show that nanoscale variation in matrix stiffness can considerably affect lineage specification human embryonic stem cells. Inhomogeneous suppress mechanotransduction facilitate stemness maintenance, while homogenous promote osteogenic differentiation. Therefore, engineering with controllable well-defined may considerable implications culture regenerative medicine.