Journal: Advanced Healthcare Materials

Article Title: Hydrogel Elastic Energy: A Stressor Triggering an Adaptive Stress‐Mediated Cell Response

doi: 10.1002/adhm.202402400

Figure Lengend Snippet: Photopolimerization of ALMA yields hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties. a) Macromolecular parameters determined for alginate from L. hyperborea and for ALMA, respectively. [η] ∞ is the intrinsic viscosity at infinite ionic strength calculated using Equation (Supporting Information). B represents the Smidsrød's rigidity parameter as determined by means of Equation (Supporting Information). R g , 0 ¯ and q 0 refer to the radius of gyration (Equation , Supporting Information) and the persistence length (Equation , Supporting Information), respectively, calculated at infinite ionic strength. For equations, see Appendix , Supporting Information. b) Structure of methacrylated alginate (ALMA) used for the preparation of hydrogels formed by photoreticulation with visible light. Created in BioRender.com. c) Dependence of the shear modulus from reticulating condition (Table , Supporting Information) for photocrosslinked hydrogels from ALMA at a final polymer concentration of 1% (w/V) and of 2% (w/V), respectively. See Tables and (Supporting Information), for additional details. d) Shear modulus, G, for the photocrosslinked hydrogels from ALMA. Data obtained from averaging ( n = 8) the shear modulus from mechanical spectra (Appendix , Supporting Information) and from long stress sweep (Appendix , Supporting Information) ( ns = not significant, **** p < 0.0001 by one‐way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test). e) Critical strain and f) elastic energy ( E e ) for the photocrosslinked hydrogels from ALMA. Data obtained from averaging ( n = 4–6) the data from long stress sweep (Appendix , Supporting Information) ( ns = not significant, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** p < 0.0001 by one‐way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test). g) Dependence of creep time, τ 3/2 and h) total viscosity determined from the creep compliance experiments from elastic energy, E e (Appendix , Supporting Information). Data are reported as mean ± s.d. ( n = 3). i) Swelling of the hydrogels (Table , Supporting Information) in complete DMEM at different time points ( n = 3, ns = not significant, **** p < 0.0001 by two‐way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test).

Article Snippet: Alginate from L. hyperborea (F G = 0.69; F GG = 0.56; average molecular weight (Mw) = 114 kDa; PI = 1.9) was kindly provided by FMC BioPolymer AS (Sandvika, Norway).

Techniques: Viscosity, Shear, Polymer, Concentration Assay, Comparison