Figure 2.
Microgel and granular hydrogel formation. a) Overview of extrusion fragmentation microgel fabrication method (left), representative fluorescent microscopy images of fragmented microgels in suspension (center), and size characterization of fragmented microgels (right). b) Overview of adhesive granular hydrogel formation (left, purple box), and formation of non-adhesive control granular hydrogels (right, grey box). Includes fluorescent microscopy images of (left) adhesive granular hydrogels (Hyd-NorHA microgels labelled with FITC-dextran [blue], Ald-NorHA microgels labelled with Rhodamine-BSA [orange]) in purple box, and (right) control granular hydrogels (NorHA microgels labelled with FITC-dextran [grey]) in grey box. c) Confocal microscopy images of fluorescently-labelled pores (white) within granular hydrogels (left) and characterization of porosity, including void space %, pore diameter, and number of pores per (500μm)2 (right). For void space (%) and number of pores per (500μm)2, data is presented as mean ± standard deviation, with a sample size of n ≥ 3. Statistical analysis performed using a one-way ANOVA. For microgel and pore diameters, data is presented as mean ± inner quartile range. ns = no significance.