Issue 12, 2019

Response of collagen matrices under pressure and hydraulic resistance in hydrogels

Abstract

Extracellular matrices in animal tissue are hydrogels mostly made of collagen. In these matrices, collagen fibers are hierarchically assembled and cross-linked to form a porous and elastic material, through which migrating cells can move by either pushing through open matrix pores, or by actively digesting collagen fibers. The influence of matrix mechanical properties on cell behavior is well studied. Less attention has been focused on hydraulic properties of extracellular matrices, and how hydrodynamic flows in these porous hydrogels are influenced by matrix composition and architecture. Here we study the response of collagen hydrogels using rapid changes in the hydraulic pressure within a microfluidic device, and analyze the data using a poroelastic theory. Major poroelastic parameters can be obtained in a single experiment. Results show that depending on the density, porosity, and the degree of geometric confinement, moving micron-sized objects such as cells can experience substantially increased hydraulic resistance (by as much as 106 times) when compared to 2D environments. Therefore, in addition to properties such as mechanical stiffness, the fluidic environment of the cell is also likely to impact cell behavior.

Graphical abstract: Response of collagen matrices under pressure and hydraulic resistance in hydrogels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Oct 2018
Accepted
13 Feb 2019
First published
18 Feb 2019

Soft Matter, 2019,15, 2617-2626

Response of collagen matrices under pressure and hydraulic resistance in hydrogels

D. Maity, Y. Li, Y. Chen and S. X. Sun, Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 2617 DOI: 10.1039/C8SM02143K

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