Cryoprotectant enables structural control of porous scaffolds for exploration of cellular mechano-responsiveness in 3D

Shumeng Jiang, Cheng Lyu, Peng Zhao, Wenjing Li, Wenyu Kong, Chenyu Huang, Guy M. Genin and Yanan Du ()
Additional contact information
Shumeng Jiang: Tsinghua University
Cheng Lyu: Tsinghua University
Peng Zhao: Tsinghua University
Wenjing Li: Tsinghua University
Wenyu Kong: Tsinghua University
Chenyu Huang: Tsinghua University
Guy M. Genin: Washington University at St. Louis
Yanan Du: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Despite the wide applications, systematic mechanobiological investigation of 3D porous scaffolds has yet to be performed due to the lack of methodologies for decoupling the complex interplay between structural and mechanical properties. Here, we discover the regulatory effect of cryoprotectants on ice crystal growth and use this property to realize separate control of the scaffold pore size and stiffness. Fibroblasts and macrophages are sensitive to both structural and mechanical properties of the gelatin scaffolds, particularly to pore sizes. Interestingly, macrophages within smaller and softer pores exhibit pro-inflammatory phenotype, whereas anti-inflammatory phenotype is induced by larger and stiffer pores. The structure-regulated cellular mechano-responsiveness is attributed to the physical confinement caused by pores or osmotic pressure. Finally, in vivo stimulation of endogenous fibroblasts and macrophages by implanted scaffolds produce mechano-responses similar to the corresponding cells in vitro, indicating that the physical properties of scaffolds can be leveraged to modulate tissue regeneration.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11397-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11397-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11397-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().