Figure 1. Design of synthetic 3D lung ECM hydrogel.

a) Schematic of characterization of lung ECM using LC-MS/MS on ECM-enriched lung tissue samples from healthy human donors. b) Illustration of integrin-mediated binding to collagen I and the list of identified integrin-binding peptide domains with their relative quantities corresponding to ECM proteins. c) Illustration of MMP-mediated degradation of collagen III and the list of MMPs responsible for ECM protein degradation along with the list of identified MMP-degradable peptide domains with their relative quantities corresponding to the different MMPs. d) Schematic of mechanical characterization of porcine lung using indentation method. e) Schematic of lung ECM hydrogel preparation with encapsulated lung fibroblasts. f) Young’s modulus of lung hydrogel measured using indentation method and its comparison with the lung modulus using the same method.