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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 10.
Published in final edited form as: MRS Bull. 2013 Mar 1;38(3):260–268. doi: 10.1557/mrs.2013.54

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Cells attach, proliferate, and migrate in MMP-degradable thiol-ene hydrogels. (a) Human mesenchymal stem cells exhibit a spread morphology that depends on the degradability and integrin binding motifs in thiol-ene gels. Single cell immunostained for nucleus (blue), actin (red), and vinculin (green, focal adhesions). Scale bar = 25 μm. Image courtesy of Chelsea Kirschner. (b) Plot of five different cell migration paths of valvular interstitial cells encapsulated within the same MMP-degradable gel. When the enzymatically cleavable cross-link is used for gel formation, cells are able to degrade the surrounding isotropic material and migrate freely in a random walk. Cells were imaged and tracked in a real-time microscope. Adapted from Reference 51. Note: MMP, matrix metalloproteinase.