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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Dec 4.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mater. 2016 Feb 2;1:15012. doi: 10.1038/natrevmats.2015.12

Figure 2. Irreversible and reversible chemistries for hydrogels.

Figure 2

a | Irreversible chemistries for hydrogels include tethered molecules for cell signalling (left panel), degradable crosslinks to mediate cell spreading (middle panel) and the generation (or degradation, which is not shown) of crosslinks to alter matrix mechanics (right panel). b | Reversible chemistries include dynamic presentation of cell signalling molecules (left panel), self-healing or adaptable crosslinks in hydrogels (middle panel) and strategies to alter the crosslinking density without changing the network connectivity of the hydrogel (right panel). c | The reversible chemistries incorporated into synthetic hydrogels and their uses for biofunctionalization, crosslinking and cyclical mechanics are shown in the table.