Figure 1.

MACP-PAAm hydrogels as composite materials with combinatorial variation of substrate stiffness and ligand anchorage. (A) Dependence of the Young's modulus, E, of PAAm hydrogel films on bis-acrylamide concentration indicated that the MACP surface modification had no impact on hydrogel stiffness. The data have been fitted by the second-order polynomial $y=\mathrm{71,000}x-\mathrm{97,000}{x}^2$. (B) FN amounts adsorbed on PEMA- or PSMA-coated PAAm hydrogels represent about a monolayer of protein coverage. Differences in FN displacement after 1 h in 500 μg/ml of bovine serum albumin demonstrate the variation of FN-substrate anchorage. Error bars indicate the standard deviation. (C) Phase-contrast images of adherent endothelial cells after 1 h of cell culture. Spreading of endothelial cells was dependent on substrate stiffness but not on the type of MACP coating. Scale bar, 30 μm.