Fig. 1.
Mitral VICs remain viable and form adhesions within biofunctionalized PEG hydrogels. (A) Left: mitral VIC viability in 4% w/v PEG-PQ-PEG + 2 mM PEG-RGDS hydrogels (n = 9 fields). Right: representative image of live (green) and dead (red) cells. Scale bar = 100 μm. (B) Confocal z-stack of mitral VICs in PEG hydrogels, stained with DAPI (blue) and phalloidin (cyan). Scale bar = 100 μm; image dimensions = 314 μm by 314 μm by 50 μm. (C) Compressive moduli of PEG hydrogels alone (n = 3 samples), PEG hydrogels with encapsulated cells (n = 3 samples), mitral valve anterior leaflet rough zone (n = 6 samples), and mitral valve posterior leaflet (n = 5 samples).