4D bioengineering materials are flexible, flexible material

Fine engineering has long relied on static geometric scaffolds seeded with cells in the laboratory to create new tissues and even organs. The scaffold material – usually a biodegradable polymer structure – is supplied by cells and the cells, if properly fed, then grow into tissue like the scaffolding biofuels basic. However, this model avoids the highly dynamic morphological processes that underlie the natural development of nappies.

Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed new 4D hydrogels – 3D materials that have the ability to change shape over time in response to stimuli – that can morph many times in a pre-programmed manner or on-demand in response to external. motivational signals.

In a new way Advanced science study, the UIC researchers, led by Eben Alsberg, show that these new materials could be used to help develop nappies that are more similar to their natural counterparts, which are controlled by forces that control movement during their creation.

“The filters can be programmed or triggered to go through many shape changes that can be controlled over time. This strategy creates experimental conditions to participate in partial or trigger the shape changes between continuous development that heals or heals nappies, and could allow us to study morphogenesis and help our engineer strain architects that are more like native figs, ”said Alsberg, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Loan Hill and a corresponding author on the paper.

The novel material is made up of different hydrogels that degrade or decay at different levels and levels in response to water or calcium density. By creating complex lying patterns, the researchers can direct the conglomerate material to bend it one way or another as the layers swell and / or shrink.

“We can change the shape of these products by changing, for example, the amount of calcium present,” said Alsberg, who is also a professor of orthopedics, pharmacology and mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC.

In their experiments, the researchers were able to cause the hydrogel to form in pockets similar in shape to alveoli, the small sac-like structures in the lung where gas exchange takes place.

Not only are Alsberg’s hydrogels able to change their architecture several times, but they are also highly cytocompatible, meaning that they can absorb cells while the cells are still alive – something that many cannot make the existing 4D products.

“We are very much looking forward to pushing the boundaries of what our unique hydrogel systems can do in terms of print engineering,” said Aixiang Ding, a postgraduate research associate at UIC and co-founder. author of the paper.OIC Jeon at UIC, a research professor, is also a co-author.

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UIC’s Rui Tang, Yu Bin Lee and Sang Jin Lee are co-authors of the paper.

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases National Institute of Health (R01AR069564, R01AR066193) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R01EB023907) and National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood (T32HL134622).