The abstract is read at the publisher; the summary is JClub's.
Photocaged hydrazone-to-oxime exchange in a dynamic covalent hydrogel shifts stress relaxation half time from ~10^2 s to ~10^4 s within one continuous matrix.
- Why it matters: Cells respond to extracellular matrix viscoelasticity, but biomaterials that let researchers tune stress relaxation in space and time in 3D without changing stiffness are still missing.
- What they did: They built a radical-free photochemical hydrogel with photocaged alkoxyamines that convert hydrazone crosslinks to oxime crosslinks after light exposure, decoupling stress relaxation from bulk stiffness.
- The result: The system enabled real-time, spatiotemporal control of fibroblast morphology in 2D, neural progenitor stemness in 3D, and neurite outgrowth from encapsulated motor neuron spheroids.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.