Figure 4. Effect of patterned RGD on 3T3 population within 3D click hydrogels.

3T3s were encapsulated into hydrogel networks at 3 × 10⁶ cells/mL. After 24 hours, thiol-functionalized RGD, a fibronectin motif known to promote cell attachment, was swollen into networks at 3 mgs/mL and exposed to 365 nm collimated light at 10 mW/cm² for 10 minutes through a variety of photomasks: (a) full mask; (b) no mask; (c) full mask with 250 µm square opening (illustrated by the dashed lines). 3T3s were stained at day 10 with CellTracker orange and imaged using confocal microscopy. Here, cells only adopt a spread morphology in user-defined regions of RGD. Images represent 200 µm confocal projections. Scale bars = 100 µm.