Hydrogels mimic many of the physical properties of soft tissue and are widely used biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Synthetic hydrogels have been developed to recapitulate many of the healthy and diseased states of native tissues and can be used as a cell scaffold to study the effect of matricellular interactions in vitro. However, these matrices often fail to capture the dynamic and heterogenous nature of the in vivo environment, which varies spatially and during events such as development and disease. To address this deficiency, a variety of manufacturing and processing techniques are being adapted to the biomaterials setting. Among these, photochemistry is particularly well suited because these reactions can be performed in precise three-dimensional space and at specific moments in time. This spatiotemporal control over chemical reactions can also be performed over a range of cell- and tissue-relevant length scales with reactions that proceed efficiently and harmlessly at ambient conditions. This review will focus on the use of photochemical reactions to create dynamic hydrogel environments, and how these dynamic environments are being used to investigate and direct cell behavior.

中文翻译：

---

时空水凝胶生物医学材料

水凝胶模仿软组织的许多物理特性，是组织工程和再生医学中广泛使用的生物材料。合成水凝胶已被开发来概括天然组织的许多健康和疾病状态，并可用作细胞支架研究体外基质细胞相互作用的影响。但是，这些基质通常无法捕获体内的动态和异质性环境，在空间上以及在诸如发展和疾病之类的事件中会发生变化。为了解决该缺陷，各种制造和加工技术正在适应生物材料的设置。其中，光化学是特别适合的，因为这些反应可以在精确的三维空间中和特定的时刻进行。这种对化学反应的时空控制也可以在一系列与细胞和组织相关的长度尺度上进行，并且反应在环境条件下可以有效且无害地进行。这篇综述将集中在使用光化学反应来创建动态水凝胶环境，以及如何使用这些动态环境来研究和指导细胞行为。