One of the most widely used biologically inert, biocompatible, and anti-fouling polymeric biomaterial is poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). This polymer is notably used to create three-dimensional networks, namely hydrogels, which can swell to a large extent in water.

Usually, smooth PEG-gels are cell repellent, while cells exhibit interestingly contact guidance on topographically patterned PEG-gels. Cell adhesion also occurs at the edges of the topographically patterns due to the fact that topographically patterned substrates can promote adsorption of proteins onto the substrate. Currently, we have investigated the cellular behaviour on our novel PEG-based polymer gels and we have determined the biocompatibility of the novel gels. Furthermore, future work will be based on protein adsorption studies to understand cellular processes on different polymer gels.

Smooth hybrid gel surfaces in dry state with patterns of elasticity can be created using two different chemically prepolymers with different crosslinking densities of the networks and thus different stiffness of the gels. In the process, the empty channels of a replica mold are filled via capillary force. At this stage, we are analyzing the cellular behaviour on our hybrid polymer gels with micropatterns of elasticity.

C Strehmel, VA Schulte, M Diez, MC Lensen, Cellular Response to Physically and Mechanically Patterned Biomaterials, 464th Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Seminar, Self Organization in Cell Assemblies and Tissues, Bad Honnef, 2010.

C Strehmel, Z Zhang, MC Lensen, Cellular Response to Novel PEG-based Biomaterials, 24th European Conference on Biomaterials, The Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials, Dublin, 2011.

Christine Strehmel

Description of work