Table 3.
Brain-relevant natural and synthetic biomaterials
| Material | Type | Crosslinking mechanisms | Common modifications | Composite with other biomaterials | Brain-relevant elastic modulus | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HA | Natural polysaccharide | Photo-crosslinking, shear thinning | Methacrylic anhydride, glycidyl methacrylate, thiol, RGD peptide | Collagen, gelatin, GelMA, chitosan, laminin, fibrin, PEG, PU | 11 Pa to 3.5 kPa | [23,38,121–126,135,136] |
| Gelatin | Natural protein | Thermal, photo-crosslinking, enzymatic | Methacrylate | HA, PU, collagen, PEGDA, fibrin, alginate, chitosan, fibrinogen | 0.49 – 12.8 kPa | [127,129–133,199] |
| dECM | Natural mixture | Relies on composite material | - | Collagen | 78.09 ± 29.22 Pa | [142] |
| Collagen | Natural protein | Thermal, Photo-crosslinking | Methacrylate | HA, GelMA, fibrin, agarose, riboflavin | 0.9 – 3.6 kPa | [135,138,139,154] |
| Matrigel | Natural mixture | Thermal | - | PEG, gelatin, alginate, agarose | 0.4 kPa | [149–151,200] |
| Fibrin | Natural protein | Enzymatic | - | HA, collagen, laminin | 0.058 – 4 kPa | [124,152,153] |
| Silk fibroin | Natural protein | Photo-crosslinking, Thermal | Methacrylate | Collagen, gelatin | 17.1 ± 7.8 kPa | [115,159] |
| Gellan gum | Natural protein | Calcium ions, photo-crosslinking | RGD peptide, methacrylate | GelMA | 6.4 – 17.2 kPa | [160,201] |
| PNIPAAm | Synthetic polymer | Thermal | - | PEG | 1.4 – 3.8 kPa | [166,202] |
| PU | Synthetic polymer | Thermal, Photo-crosslinking | - | HA, gelatin | 0.6 – 8.1 kPa | [130,172] |
| PEG | Synthetic polymer | Photo-crosslinking, click chemistry | Methacrylate, thiol, diacrylate, RGD peptide | HA, GelMA, PNIPAAm, laminin | 1 – 26 kPa | [78] |
| SAP | Synthetic peptide | Self-assembly | - | - | 0.3 – 5.3 kPa | [174,177] |