Visible light photo-crosslinking of biomimetic gelatin-hyaluronic acid hydrogels for adipose tissue engineering
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Published version
Author(s)
Pitton, Matteo
Urzì, Christian
Farè, Silvia
Contessi Negrini, Nicola
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Tissue engineering (TE) of adipose tissue (AT) is a promising strategy that can provide 3D constructs to be used for in vitro modelling, overcoming the limitations of 2D cell cultures by closely replicating the complex breast tissue extracellular matrix (ECM), cell-cell, and cell-ECM interactions. However, the challenge in developing 3D constructs of AT resides in designing artificial matrices that can mimic the structural properties of native AT and support adipocytes biological functions. Herein, we developed photocrosslinkable hydrogels by employing gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) and hyaluronic acid methacrylate (HAMA) to mimic the collagenous and glycosaminoglycan components of AT microenvironment, respectively. The physico-mechanical properties of the hydrogels were tuned to target AT biomimetic properties by varying the hydrogel formulation (with or without hyaluronic acid), and the amount of photoinitiator (ruthenium/sodium persulfate) used to crosslink the hydrogels via visible light. The physical and mechanical properties of the developed hydrogels were tuned by varying the material formulation and the photoinitiator concentration. Preadipocytes were encapsulated inside the hydrogels and differentiated into mature adipocytes. Findings enlightened that HAMA addition in hybrid hydrogels boosted an increased lipid accumulation. The engineered biomimetic adipocyte-based constructs resulted promising as scaffolds or 3D in vitro models of AT.
Date Issued
2024-10
Date Acceptance
2024-07-24
Citation
Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 2024, 158
ISSN
1751-6161
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials
Volume
158
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2024.106675
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
106675
Date Publish Online
2024-07-25