Abstract
Hydrogels are used for 3D in vitro assays and tissue engineering and regeneration purposes. For a thorough interpretation of this technology, an integral biomechanical characterization of the materials is required. In this work, we characterize the mechanical and functional behavior of two specific hydrogels that play critical roles in wound healing, collagen and fibrin. A coherent and complementary characterization was performed using a generalized and standard composition of each hydrogel and a combination of techniques. Microstructural analysis was performed by scanning electron microscopy and confocal reflection imaging. Permeability was measured using a microfluidic-based experimental set-up, and mechanical responses were analyzed by rheology. We measured a pore size of 2.84 and 1.69 μm for collagen and fibrin, respectively. Correspondingly, the permeability of the gels was 1.00·10−12 and 5.73·10−13 m2. The shear modulus in the linear viscoelastic regime was 15 Pa for collagen and 300 Pa for fibrin. The gels exhibited strain-hardening behavior at ca. 10% and 50% strain for fibrin and collagen, respectively. This consistent biomechanical characterization provides a detailed and robust starting point for different 3D in vitro bioapplications, such as collagen and/or fibrin gels. These features may have major implications for 3D cellular behavior by inducing divergent microenvironmental cues.
Highlights
Wound healing demonstrates the capacity of skin to regenerate in an orchestrated manner.pathological healing processes, such as fibrosis, hypertrophic scars or ulcers, can lead to major disabilities or even death and have a high global incidence [1]
This work reports the complete characterization of relevant parameters for biomimetic matrices for 3D in vitro assays and primarily focuses on mimicking wound regeneration using widely-used collagen and a fibrin hydrogel compositions
Three independent sets were examined for each hydrogel, and the data are presented as the mean ± scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
Summary
Wound healing demonstrates the capacity of skin to regenerate in an orchestrated manner. The application of collagen and fibrin hydrogels as scaffolds in tissue engineering and in vitro experiments and their biomechanical characterization have increased remarkably [27,29,35] These studies have employed a wide diversity of hydrogel compositions and different measurement methods [43]. Modification of the gel composition, polymerization temperature or pH alters various biophysical properties [44] These variations hinder the application of hydrogels in the controlled representation of microenvironments for wound healing experiments, as well as the analysis of the impact of these parameters on the cell response. This work reports the complete characterization of relevant parameters for biomimetic matrices for 3D in vitro assays and primarily focuses on mimicking wound regeneration using widely-used collagen and a fibrin hydrogel compositions. The presented methodology could be suitable for the study of other scaffolds and their variations
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