ArticleNature communications2012
Stiffening hydrogels to probe short- and long-term cellular responses to dynamic mechanics.
Article in Nature communications, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 339 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
339 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sea Cucumber-Inspired Double-Network Biopolymer Hydrogels for Programmable Soft Machines.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Spatio-temporal mechanosensitive phagocytic response of retinal pigment epithelial cells to reversible changes in substrate stiffness.Acta biomaterialia · 2026Article
- Dynamic Biomaterial: A Platform for Biomedical Applications With Multiple Preparation Strategies.Macromolecular rapid communications · 2026Review
- Encoded Cell-Material Interactions to Reroute Cytokine Signaling for Regenerative Medicine.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- Mechanical Intelligence in Bone Regeneration: Bridging Material and Cellular Memory for Enhanced Healing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Beyond Potency: Emerging Determinants and Optimization Strategies Enhancing Therapeutic Efficacy of Adult Stem Cells.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Leveraging factors that control alveolar epithelial cell fate enables large-scale expansion for lung tissue engineering.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Dynamic Modulation of the Microenvironment Promotes Functional Maturation of Engineered Tissues.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- Review
- Toward Dynamic Liquid Cell Scaffold: Photoreversible Ion Gels Exhibiting Light-Induced Sol-Gel Transitions.Macromolecular rapid communications · 2026Article
- Hydrogel-Embedded Precision-Cut Lung Slices Recapitulate Fibrotic Gene Expression and Enable Therapeutic Response Evaluation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The mechanical strain as a cross-linking agent for skeletal muscle ECM-derived hydrogels.Materials today. Bio · 2026Article
- Dynamic Gelatin Hydrogels Crosslinked by Dithiolane-Norbornene Click Chemistry.Macromolecular bioscience · 2026Article
- Mechanically heterogeneous hydrogel with cell-programmed network restructuring promotes tissue regeneration by mechano-epigenetic modulation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The effects of nanopillar and nanopit arrays on the morphology and osteogenic differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells.Applied microscopy · 2026Article
- Exercise-Based Mechanotherapy: From Biomechanical Principles and Mechanotransduction to Precision Regenerative Rehabilitation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Multifactorial pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis: interaction between inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, and tissue mechanics.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Dynamic microenvironments for bone organoids: spatiotemporal regulation of angiogenic-osteogenic coupling through advanced hydrogel design.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2026Review
- From Light to Life: Molecular Mechanisms and Macroscopic Transformations in Photoresponsive Hydrogels.Polymer science & technology (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Review
- Functional scaffolds design strategies for retinal repair and regeneration.Materials today. Bio · 2025Review
279 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biological processes are dynamic in nature, and growing evidence suggests that matrix stiffening is particularly decisive during development, wound healing and disease; yet, nearly all in vitro models are static. Here we introduce a step-wise approach, addition then light-mediated crosslinking, to fabricate hydrogels that stiffen (for example, ~3-30 kPa) in the presence of cells, and investigated the short-term (minutes-to-hours) and long-term (days-to-weeks) cell response to dynamic stiffening. When substrates are stiffened, adhered human mesenchymal stem cells increase their area from ~500 to 3,000 μm(2) and exhibit greater traction from ~1 to 10 kPa over a timescale of hours. For longer cultures up to 14 days, human mesenchymal stem cells selectively differentiate based on the period of culture, before or after stiffening, such that adipogenic differentiation is favoured for later stiffening, whereas osteogenic differentiation is favoured for earlier stiffening.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.