Tunable Hydrogels for External Manipulation of Cellular Microenvironments through Controlled Photodegradation

Abstract

A photocleavable, poly(ethylene-glycol)-based hydrogel is presented in which predictable, user-defined gradients in the network's structure can be fabricated in real time under cytocompatible conditions. This platform provides new opportunities to investigate how material structure influences cell function. Here, cell morphology is directed spatially by degradation-induced gradients in the local polymer density (see figure, scale bars: 50 μm). Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.