Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel as a Scaffold for Cells’ Encapsulation

Abstract: Hydrogels are high water-content polymers that mimic the extracellular matrix of cells. The polymers can have many sources and be of natural origin from the extracellular matrix (ECM) of cells or be synthetically derived. Two such polymers are hyaluronic acid and gelatin, which can with the help of the release of free radicals from photoinitiators, initiated by UV light, polymerise, and form a hydrogel. In these hydrogels, cells can be encapsulated. The hydrogels can in turn be used to maintain cells as they are in the natural environment. For example, hydrogels can provide an in-vivo-like ECM for stem cells and endothelial cells by supporting “stemness” and cell-to-cell contact; respectively. We aim to establish a protocol for culturing cells in the hydrogelas a first milestone in a project focused on profiling the metabolome of cells grown in hydrogels. To accomplish this, four types of cells, namely mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells (bEnd.3), human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), adult human lung fibroblast (hLFs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), were evaluated for growth in hyaluronic acid methacrylate (HA-ma), hyaluronic acid acrylamide (HA-am) as well as a QuattroGel composed by gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA), HA-ma, fibrinogen and thrombin. It was found that HA-masupported viability and the stemness of mesenchymal stem cells, of which the metabolome can be further studied in order to evaluate the difference between regular 2D maintenance and maintenance in 3D. No sprouting was observed for the other cells encapsulated in the hydrogel, and further experiments are needed to find the source of error.