A Novel Method to Make Polyacrylamide Gels with Mechanical Properties Resembling those of Biological Tissues

Studies characterizing how cells respond to the mechanical properties of their environment have been enabled by the use of soft elastomers and hydrogels as substrates for cell culture. A limitation of most such substrates is that, although their elastic properties can be accurately controlled, their viscous properties cannot, and cells respond to both elasticity and viscosity in the extracellular material to which they bind. Some approaches to endow soft substrates with viscosity as well as elasticity are based on coupling static and dynamic crosslinks in series within polymer networks or forming gels with a combination of sparse chemical crosslinks and steric entanglements. These materials form viscoelastic fluids that have revealed significant effects of viscous dissipation on cell function; however, they do not completely capture the mechanical features of soft solid tissues. In this report, we describe a method to make viscoelastic solids that more closely mimic some soft tissues using a combination of crosslinked networks and entrapped linear polymers. Both the elastic and viscous moduli of these substrates can be altered separately, and methods to attach cells to either the elastic or the viscous part of the network are described. Graphic abstract: Polyacrylamide gels with independently controlled elasticity and viscosity.