Systems and methods for growing cells or cell sheets are described. The method may use biocompatible or food-safe materials. The method may allow for cell alignment, optionally in selected patterns, which may be produced by casting a membrane on a 3D printed mold. The method may include surface treatment of an elastomeric membrane. The method may allow for the reuse of the membranes by autoclaving and/or a washing step. The method may create multi-layer cell sheets with an extracellular matrix (ECM) created by the cells, which may be detached from the membrane. Optionally, the cells may be separated from the ECM.

The present invention relates to a method of immobilizing a cell on a support, the method comprising a) providing a compound or salt thereof comprising, preferably consisting of, one or more hydrophobic domains attached to a hydrophilic domain, wherein the one or more hydrophobic domains are covalently bound to said hydrophilic domain, and wherein the one or more hydrophobic domains each comprise a linear lipid, a steroid or a hydrophobic vitamin, and wherein the hydrophilic domain comprises a polyethylene glycol (PEG) moiety, and wherein the compound comprises a linking group; b) contacting a cell with the compound under conditions allowing the interaction of the compound with the membrane of the cell, thereby immobilizing the linking group on the surface of the cell; and c) contacting the linking group immobilized on the cell with a support capable of binding the linking group, thereby immobilizing the cell on the support.

The invention provides a thermosensitive peptide hydrogel, which comprises water, a polyether/polyol polymer and a peptide molecule. The peptide molecule has a structure represented by the following chemical formula (1).

chemical structure (1):

##STR00001##

A polymer hydrogel having a polymer formed by the crosslinking reaction of a polymeric unit A according to formula (I), ##STR00001##
with a crosslinking unit B according to formula (II) ##STR00002##
and water, wherein n=100-10,000, preferable 250-2500, more preferable 500-1500; m=independently 2-10, preferably 3 or 4; FG is a functional moiety that can be covalently coupled to the complementary functional moiety F1 or F2 of the crosslinking unit (B); k=0.01-0.05; h=0, 1 or 2; the spacer is an organic moiety, having a main chain comprising at least two functional moieties F1 and F2, wherein the length of the crosslinker in the extended conformation as determined by molecular modeling (including spacer and functional groups F1 and F2) is between 2.5 and 12 nm, or wherein the length is between 20 and 80 atoms.

Methods to form a surface coating and surface pattern, which are based on adsorption of hydrocarbon chains that can be used with imaging optics to visualize macrophage fusion and multinucleated giant cell formation with living specimens are described.

Methods to form a surface coating and surface pattern, which are based on adsorption of hydrocarbon chains that can be used with imaging optics to visualize macrophage fusion and multinucleated giant cell formation with living specimens are described.

The present invention relates to a method for producing biodegradable fibers on the basis of a silane compound, said silane compound being crosslinked during production and, at least to some extent, an organic acid being incorporated into the forming crosslinked structure via covalent bonds and/or contributing to the crosslinking. The present invention also relates to the fibers that can be produced by the method according to the invention and to the use thereof.

The present disclosure discloses a rosin-based small molecular weight hydrogelator and an application thereof, and belongs to the fields of supramolecular chemistry, surfactant science and chemical utilization of rosin. The rosin-based small molecular hydrogel of the present disclosure can gel water at a very low concentration, and the critical gelling concentration is only 0.176 wt %. On average, each gelling agent molecule can hold 13,889 water molecules, which exhibits extremely high gel efficiency and the formed small molecular hydrogel also exhibits extremely high stability. This small molecule hydrogel is derived from the natural product rosin and has a mild nature. It can be used in the fields of drug sustained-release, tissue engineering, daily chemicals, medicine and so on. At the same time, the rosin-based small molecular hydrogel 6-dehydroabietylamide amine oxide in the present disclosure can form a stable gel emulsion for most oils, and can be used in many fields such as food, medicine, daily chemicals, tissue engineering, environmental protection, and water pollution control.

Hybrid hydrogels, made of a three-dimensional network of fibrillar nanostructures, at least a portion of the fibrillar nanostructures being formed of at least two different types of aromatic moieties, at least one type of the aromatic moieties being an end-capping modified aromatic dipeptide and at least another type of the aromatic moieties being an amine-modified halogenated aromatic amino acid, are provided. Also provided are processes of preparing the hybrid hydrogels and uses thereof.

A polymer hydrogel having a polymer formed by the crosslinking reaction of a polymeric unit A according to formula (I),

##STR00001##

with a crosslinking unit B according to formula (II)

##STR00002##

and water, wherein n=100-10,000, preferable 250-2500, more preferable 500-1500; m=independently 2-10, preferably 3 or 4; FG is a functional moiety that can be covalently coupled to the complementary functional moiety F1 or F2 of the crosslinking unit (B); k=0.01-0.05; h=0, 1 or 2; the spacer is an organic moiety, having a main chain comprising at least two functional moieties F1 and F2, wherein the length of the crosslinker in the extended conformation as determined by molecular modeling (including spacer and functional groups F1 and F2) is between 2.5 and 12 nm, or wherein the length is between 20 and 80 atoms.