ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2017
Stem cell migration and mechanotransduction on linear stiffness gradient hydrogels.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 201 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
201 citing papers in PubMed.
- Simple fabrication method for cancer cell migration studies on biomimetic substrates with tunable stiffness.Materials today. Bio · 2026Article
- Computational insights on the interplay between electrotaxis and mechanotaxis.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Microengineered Gradient Hydrogels for Mechanobiology.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Ribbon-shaped microgels as bioinks for 3D bioprinting of anisotropic tissue structures.Bioactive materials · 2026Article
- Dynamic insights into cellular mechanics and membrane undulations in vascular smooth muscle cells.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2026Article
- Modulating cell surface chemistry through mild reduction reinforces extracellular-to-intracellular transmission forces and mechano-signaling.Materials today. Bio · 2026Article
- Fluorescently Labeled Gradient Hydrogels Reveal Matrix-Dependent Cell Responses to Substrate Stiffness.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Matrix Stiffness Modulates Fibroblast Paracrine Signaling to Enhance Autophagy in Keratinocytes: Implications for Wound Healing.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Functionally Graded Surfaces and Materials: From Fabrication to Biomedical Applications.Chemical reviews · 2026Review
- Harnessing Piezoelectric Biomaterials for Pathogenic Eradication and Tissue Regeneration.Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2026Review
- Graphene and TiACS applied bio materials · 2026Article
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- Engineering Aging: Approaches to Model and Deconstruct Biological Complexity.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Review
- Theragenerative Nanomaterials: Integrating Therapy, Regeneration, and Diagnosis-Navigating the Shared Pathways Between Tissue Repair and Malignancy.International journal of nanomedicine · 2026Review
- AnBiofabrication · 2025Article
- Programmable acoustofluidic engineering for creating gradient biomaterials.Science advances · 2025Article
- MeCP2-driven chromatin organization controls nuclear stiffness.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Contact stiffness governs cell mechanosensing through molecular clutches.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Leveraging crosslinker diffusion to template stiffness gradients in alginate hydrogels.Biomedical materials (Bristol, England) · 2025Article
- A soft-stiff patterned bioengineering model reveals kinase pathways driving directional cell migration in pulmonary arterial hypertension.Biomaterials science · 2025Article
141 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
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The spatial presentation of mechanical information is a key parameter for cell behavior. We have developed a method of polymerization control in which the differential diffusion distance of unreacted cross-linker and monomer into a prepolymerized hydrogel sink results in a tunable stiffness gradient at the cell-matrix interface. This simple, low-cost, robust method was used to produce polyacrylamide hydrogels with stiffness gradients of 0.5, 1.7, 2.9, 4.5, 6.8, and 8.2 kPa/mm, spanning the in vivo physiological and pathological mechanical landscape. Importantly, three of these gradients were found to be nondurotactic for human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs), allowing the presentation of a continuous range of stiffnesses in a single well without the confounding effect of differential cell migration. Using these nondurotactic gradient gels, stiffness-dependent hASC morphology, migration, and differentiation were studied. Finally, the mechanosensitive proteins YAP, Lamin A/C, Lamin B, MRTF-A, and MRTF-B were analyzed on these gradients, providing higher-resolution data on stiffness-dependent expression and localization.
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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.