Figure 2.

Mechanical testing and cryopreservation. A) Large microgel (red arrow) compressed between the two plates of the MicroTester. B) Compressive modulus of bulk gels versus microgels. C) 10 kDa PEG-VS monomers pack closer together compared to 20 kDa monomers. D) Compressive modulus of frozen microgels remains constant after thawing. E) Addition of fluorescent peptide to verify successful peptide addition. Scale bar at Day 0 represents 500 μm. Scale bar at Day 3 represents 100 μm. F) Cell spreading on frozen and fresh gels compared to rounded cells on negative control. Scale bar represents 200 μm. G) alamarBlue assay confirms that fresh and frozen microgels support similar levels of bioactivity. Statistics: (B) Two-way ANOVA, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. (D,G) Ordinary one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. n ≥ 3. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001