25th anniversary article: Designer hydrogels for cell cultures: a materials selection guide.

Thiele, Julian; Ma, Yujie; Bruekers, Stéphanie M C; Ma, Shaohua; Huck, Wilhelm T S · Adv Mater · 2014

review · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Cell culturing, whether for tissue engineering or cell biology studies, always involves placing cells in a non-natural environment and no material currently exist that can mimic the entire complexity of natural tissues and variety of cell-matrix interactions that is found in vivo. Here, we review the vast range of hydrogels, composed of natural or synthetic polymers that provide a route to tailored microenvironments.

Medical subject headings