Fig. 4. Bulk degradation of PhoCoil gels.

(A) Degradation of varying gel weight percentages in response to increasing time of light exposure. 25 μL gels covered with PBS were exposed to 10 mW cm⁻², 405 nm light for 0, 30, 60, or 90 min. Images of remaining gel in inverted tubes were obtained at the indicated intervals post-exposure. (B) Quantification of gel degradation rates. Samples of PBS above each gel were analyzed by BCA assay to determine protein content as a measure of the percentage of gel degraded at each interval post exposure. Three independent gels were tested for each combination of weight percentage and light exposure time. Data shown are mean ± SD.