Hydrogel-based microenvironment for modulating gland tissue morphogenesis

Biological tissue fabrication in vitro is garnering attention these days for its potential usage as a new therapeutic tool and for understanding the mechanisms underlying tissue development. At this stage, Researchers have already developed several methods to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) cell constructs with desired size and morphology. Now, we seek to determine how we can transform this simple 3D cell construct into a functional biological tissue in vitro. Applying external stimuli to the cell construct may be one way to achieve this goal. In this context, we modified biocompatible hydrogel materials to reproduce the biomimetic physical and chemical environment. Hydrogels with different mechanical stiffness were prepared to physically mimic environments, and RGD-modified hydrogels were prepared to chemically mimic environments. To understand the effect of these synthesized environments on tissue generation and growth, the organotypic culture of mouse salivary gland tissue was studied using the environments. The potential use of the biomimetic environments synthesized by biocompatible hydrogel material for modulating tissue growth is discussed in this chapter.