A synthetic elastomer based on acrylated polypropylene glycol triol with tunable modulus for tissue engineering applications

As strategies for manipulating cellular behaviour in vitro and in vivo become more sophisticated, synthetic biomaterial substrates capable of reproducing critical biochemical and biophysical properties (or cues) of tissue micro-environments will be required. Cytoskeletal tension has been shown to be highly deterministic of cell fate decisions, yet few synthetic biomaterials are capable of modulating cytoskeletal tension of adhered cells through variations in stiffness, at least in the ranges applicable to tissue properties (e.g., 1–100 kPa), whilst also possessing other required properties, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and processability. In this paper we describe a non-cytotoxic polymer system based on acrylated polypropylene glycol triol (aPPGT). This new elastomer system has tunable elastic moduli, is degradable, can be easily surface modified and can be manufactured into porous three dimensional scaffolds or micropatterned substrates. We demonstrate that the PPGT substrates can modulate hMSC morphology, growth, and differentiation, and that they can produce similar outcomes as observed for a non-degradable polyacrylamide substrate, confirming their utility as a degradable elastomer for tissue engineering and other biomedical applications.