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Main-Chain Liquid Crystalline Hydrogels that Support 3D Stem Cell Culture.

Hydrogels are frequently utilized as three-dimensional matrices for the culture and regeneration of soft tissues, but one challenge with existing hydrogels is that, though the natural extracellular matrix of tissues may be ordered, there are few biocompatible ways to incorporate anisotropy within hydrogels. Liquid crystalline polymers are well-suited for this due to their combination of molecular ordering and polymer elasticity, however the hydrophobic nature of liquid crystalline monomers has hindered their polymerization into hydrogels under cytocompatible conditions. This work reports on the generation of main-chain liquid crystalline (LC) hydrogels in aqueous media, and the ability of LC phases to affect mesenchymal stem cell behavior. The synthesis results in high gel fraction materials, and calorimetry, thermomechanical analysis, and X-ray scattering show that the networks organize into LC phases in the dry and hydrogel states. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) cultured within the hydrogels show excellent viability, and hMSC proliferation proceeds at a faster rate in LC hydrogels compared to non-liquid crystalline hydrogels. The result is a new synthetic approach for calamitic liquid crystalline hydrogels, which support the encapsulation and culture of human stem cells and are expected to enable applications as anisotropic and responsive substrates for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.