The recapitulation of complex microenvironments that regulate cell behavior during development, disease, and wound healing is key to understanding fundamental biological processes. In vitro, multicellular morphogenesis, organoid maturation, and disease modeling have traditionally been studied using either non-physiological 2D substrates or 3D biological matrices, neither of which replicate the spatiotemporal biochemical and biophysical complexity of biology. Here, we provide a guided overview of the recent advances in the programming of synthetic hydrogels that offer precise control over the spatiotemporal properties within cellular microenvironments, such as advances in the control of cell-driven remodeling, bioprinting, or user-defined manipulation of properties (e.g., via light irradiation).

概括发育、疾病和伤口愈合过程中调节细胞行为的复杂微环境是理解基本生物过程的关键。在体外，多细胞形态发生、类器官成熟和疾病建模传统上是使用非生理性 2D 基质或 3D 生物基质进行研究，这两种基质都无法复制生物学的时空生化和生物物理复杂性。在这里，我们提供了合成水凝胶编程的最新进展的指导性概述，这些进展可以精确控制细胞微环境中的时空特性，例如细胞驱动的重塑、生物打印或用户定义的特性操纵的控制方面的进展（例如，通过光照射）。