Abstract
Microrheology analyzes the microscopic behavior of complex materials by measuring the diffusion and transport of embedded particle probes. This experimental method can provide valuable insight into the design of biomaterials with the ability to connect material properties and biological responses to polymer-scale dynamics and interactions. In this review, we discuss how microrheology can be harnessed as a characterization method complementary to standard techniques in biomaterial design. We begin by introducing the core principles and instruments used to perform microrheology. We then review previous studies that incorporate microrheology in their design process and highlight biomedical applications that have been supported by this approach. Overall, this review provides rationale and practical guidance for the utilization of microrheological analysis to engineer novel biomaterials.
Highlights
Biomaterials are a versatile and diverse class of materials that have significantly advanced long-established and emerging fields such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and immunoengineering.[1,2,3] For these applications, precise control of their chemical and mechanical properties is critical to drive a specified biological response.[4]
Jiang and Granick demonstrated how gel formation and network structure heterogeneity in agarose gels respond to changes in temperature using microrheology.[86]. They demonstrated that they could study reversibility of gel formation upon repeated heating and cooling cycles. This has been examined for DNA hydrogels that are responsive to temperature using particle tracking, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) microrheology.[102,103]
This has been studied in previous work where mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibited significant changes in intracellular stiffness as measured by microrheology depending on substrate stiffness.[125]
Summary
Biomaterials are a versatile and diverse class of materials that have significantly advanced long-established and emerging fields such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and immunoengineering.[1,2,3] For these applications, precise control of their chemical and mechanical properties is critical to drive a specified biological response.[4]. Microrheology can be used to investigate the internal microenvironment of soft materials, by observing thermally or field-driven movement of colloidal probes entrenched within the material.[8] The motion of these particles can exhibit a linear or nonlinear response depending on the surrounding medium This response can be quantified to understand material properties and mechanics.[9] Microrheology has been used to characterize a wide range of complex fluids, suspensions, and soft polymeric materials.[10] Using microrheology in the design of biomaterials has many practical advantages such as rapid acquisition speed, simple preparation requirements, and low sample volume.[11] The high spatiotemporal resolution of microrheological measurements allows for micro- to nanoscale interactions and dynamics to be directly probed providing a significant technical advantage in biomaterial design. We discuss the current trends in microrheology and prospects of further incorporating this technique into biomaterial design
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