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Journal ArticleDOI

Soft biological materials and their impact on cell function

Ilya Levental, +2 more
- 14 Feb 2007 - 
- Vol. 3, Iss: 3, pp 299-306
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TLDR
Biocompatible synthetic materials already have many applications, but combining chemical compatibility with physiologically appropriate mechanical properties will increase their potential for use both as implants and as substrates for tissue engineering.
Abstract
Most organs and biological tissues are soft viscoelastic materials with elastic moduli ranging from on the order of 100 Pa for the brain to 100 000 Pa for soft cartilage. Biocompatible synthetic materials already have many applications, but combining chemical compatibility with physiologically appropriate mechanical properties will increase their potential for use both as implants and as substrates for tissue engineering. Understanding and controlling mechanical properties, specifically softness, is important for appropriate physiological function in numerous contexts. The mechanical properties of the substrate on which, or within which, cells are placed can have as large an impact as chemical stimuli on cell morphology, differentiation, motility, and commitment to live or die.

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Citations
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Introducing chemical functionality in Fmoc-peptide gels for cell culture.

TL;DR: Results demonstrate that introduction of chemical functionality into Fmoc-peptide scaffolds may provide gels with tunable chemical and mechanical properties for in vitro cell culture.
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In situ force mapping of mammary gland transformation

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Injectable hydrogel materials for spinal cord regeneration: a review.

TL;DR: There are helpful lessons to be learned from the investigations of injectable hydrogels for the treatment of SCI that apply to the use of these biomaterials for the Treatment of lesions in other central nervous system tissues and in organs comprising other tissue types.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Tissue Cells Feel and Respond to the Stiffness of Their Substrate

TL;DR: An understanding of how tissue cells—including fibroblasts, myocytes, neurons, and other cell types—sense matrix stiffness is just emerging with quantitative studies of cells adhering to gels with which elasticity can be tuned to approximate that of tissues.
Journal ArticleDOI

Tensional homeostasis and the malignant phenotype.

TL;DR: It is found that tumors are rigid because they have a stiff stroma and elevated Rho-dependent cytoskeletal tension that drives focal adhesions, disrupts adherens junctions, perturbs tissue polarity, enhances growth, and hinders lumen formation.
Journal ArticleDOI

Cell locomotion and focal adhesions are regulated by substrate flexibility

TL;DR: The ability of cells to survey the mechanical properties of their surrounding environment is demonstrated and the possible involvement of both protein tyrosine phosphorylation and myosin-generated cortical forces in this process is suggested.
Journal ArticleDOI

Effects of substrate stiffness on cell morphology, cytoskeletal structure, and adhesion

TL;DR: The hypothesis that mechanical factors impact different cell types in fundamentally different ways, and can trigger specific changes similar to those stimulated by soluble ligands, is supported.
Journal ArticleDOI

Local force and geometry sensing regulate cell functions.

TL;DR: Tissue scaffolds that have been engineered at the micro- and nanoscale level now enable better dissection of the mechanosensing, transduction and response mechanisms of eukaryotic cells.
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