Tunable Collagen I Hydrogels for Engineered Physiological Tissue Micro-Environments
Open accessAbstract
Collagen I hydrogels are commonly used to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) for tissue engineering applications. However, the ability to design collagen I hydrogels similar to the properties of physiological tissues has been elusive. This is primarily due to the lack of quantitative correlations between multiple fabrication parameters and resulting material properties. This study aims to enable informed design and fabrication of collagen hydrogels in order to reliably and reproducibly mimic a variety of soft tissues. We developed empirical predictive models relating fabrication parameters with material and transport properties. These models were obtained through extensive experimental characterization of these properties, which include compression modulus, pore and fiber diameter, and diffusivity. Fabrication parameters were varied within biologically relevant ranges and included collagen concentration, polymerization pH, and polymerization temperature. The data obtained from this study elucidates previously unknown fabrication-property relationships, while the resulting equations facilitate informed a priori design of collagen hydrogels with prescribed properties. By enabling hydrogel fabrication by design, this study has the potential to greatly enhance the utility and relevance of collagen hydrogels in order to develop physiological tissue microenvironments for a wide range of tissue engineering applications.
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Conventional 2D cell monolayers and 3D cell culture models are unable to recapitulate the complex biochemical and biophysical factors of the tumor microenvironment in vivo because they lack the systemic nature of tumors, leading to weak predictive ability.
“2D cell monolayers and three-dimensional cell culture models have been widely employed as initial screening models to provide a cost-efficient and simplified method to elucidate the mechanism of cancer biology or identify the efficacy and safety of a drug candidate14–16; however, they are unable to recapitulate complex biochemical and biophysical factors of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in vivo”
From Tumor-on-a-chip: from bioinspired design to biomedical application (2021) · cites this paper as [17]
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References 31 · Cited by 125
- Authors
- Antoine, E. E., Vlachos, P. P., & Rylander, M. N.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Corresponding author
- Antoine, Elizabeth E.
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2015-03-30
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e0122500
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4378848
- OpenAlex
- W2057723124
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 2.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0955072, CAREER)
- National Cancer Institute (IR21CA158454-01A1, R21CA158454)
- Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Collagen: Extraction and Characterization
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Keywords
- collagen I hydrogel, tunable hydrogels, extracellular matrix mimicry, tissue microenvironment, compressive modulus, pore size, fiber diameter, diffusion coefficient, polymerization temperature, collagen content, predictive modeling, soft tissue engineering
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Biocompatible Materials, Diffusion, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Humans, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Kinetics, Molecular Weight, Temperature, Compressive Strength, Hydrogels, Protein Structure, Quaternary, Tissue Engineering, Collagen Type I, Cell Line, Tumor, Rats, Protein Multimerization
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