Communication

Optically Responsive and Mechanically Tunable Colloid-In-Liquid Crystal Gels that Support Growth of Fibroblasts†

  1. Ankit Agarwal,
  2. Elise Huang,
  3. Sean Palecek,
  4. Nicholas L. Abbott*

Article first published online: 20 OCT 2008

DOI: 10.1002/adma.200800932

Issue

Advanced Materials

Advanced Materials

Volume 20, Issue 24, pages 4804–4809, December 17, 2008

Additional Information

How to Cite

Agarwal, A., Huang, E., Palecek, S. and Abbott, N. L. (2008), Optically Responsive and Mechanically Tunable Colloid-In-Liquid Crystal Gels that Support Growth of Fibroblasts. Adv. Mater., 20: 4804–4809. doi: 10.1002/adma.200800932

Author Information

  1. Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI 53706 (USA)

*Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI 53706 (USA).

  1. †

    Authors thank Jugal K Gupta for his helpful discussions. The study was funded by NSF through grants DMR-0520527 and DMR-0602570, and ARO through grants W911NF-07-1-0446 and W911NF-06-1-0314. Supporting Information is available online from Wiley InterScience or from the author.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 16 DEC 2008
  2. Article first published online: 20 OCT 2008
  3. Manuscript Received: 5 APR 2008

Funded by

  • NSF. Grant Numbers: DMR-0520527, DMR-0602570
  • ARO. Grant Numbers: W911NF-07-1-0446, W911NF-06-1-0314

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Keywords:

  • cell spreading;
  • colloids;
  • fibroblasts;
  • gels;
  • liquid crystals
Thumbnail image of graphical abstract

Whereas low molecular weight liquid crystals (LCs) are too soft to support the culture of fibroblast cells, gels formed by polystyrene microparticles dispersed in LCs can be mechanically tuned to support the cell culture. These self-supporting gels can be readily molded, thus facilitating their use for cell culture, and they contain micrometer-sized domains of LCs that can be oriented by interactions at the surfaces confining the gels.

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