Abstract
The mechanical properties of cells and the extracellular environment they reside in are governed by a complex interplay of biopolymers. These biopolymers, which possess a wide range of stiffnesses, self-assemble into fibrous composite networks such as the cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix. They interact with each other both physically and chemically to create a highly responsive and adaptive mechanical environment that stiffens when stressed or strained. Here we show that hybrid networks of a synthetic mimic of biological networks and either stiff, flexible and semi-flexible components, even very low concentrations of these added components, strongly affect the network stiffness and/or its strain-responsive character. The stiffness (persistence length) of the second network, its concentration and the interaction between the components are all parameters that can be used to tune the mechanics of the hybrids. The equivalence of these hybrids with biological composites is striking.
Highlights
The mechanical properties of cells and the extracellular environment they reside in are governed by a complex interplay of biopolymers
The results show that stiff rods, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), are an effective tool to manipulate the mechanical properties of hydrogels, even at minimal concentrations
In hydrogels of semi-flexible filaments these length scales are of a similar order, which gives rise to a rich mechanical behaviour[15,26,52] that Nature uses on many occasions
Summary
The mechanical properties of cells and the extracellular environment they reside in are governed by a complex interplay of biopolymers These biopolymers, which possess a wide range of stiffnesses, self-assemble into fibrous composite networks such as the cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix. They interact with each other both physically and chemically to create a highly responsive and adaptive mechanical environment that stiffens when stressed or strained. These materials are unlikely candidates to serve as synthetic ECM mimics, since they are composed of flexible polymer chains and do not form the fibrous structures that are found for biopolymers. The synthetic composites provide a guide on how to more closely mimic the complex mechanical behaviour of natural biopolymer composites, and on the design of much ‘smarter’ soft materials
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