Soft hydrogel promotes dorsal root ganglion by upregulating gene expression of Ntn4 and Unc5B

Mechanical property is an important factor of cellular microenvironment for neural tissue regeneration. In this study, polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogels with systematically varying elastic modulus were prepared using in situ radical polymerization. We found that the hydrogel was biocompatible, and the length of dorsal root ganglion (DRG)'s axon and cell density were optimal on the hydrogels with elastic modulus of 5.1 kPa (among hydrogels with...