3D Porous Liquid Crystal Elastomer Scaffolds as Cell Supports for Long-term Tissue Cultures

Three-dimensional (3D) biological scaffolds that mimic endogenous tissues must have multiple functional, structural, and mechanical components and properties. Their main purpose is to provide suitable environments for cells to grow and proliferate for longer periods of time and act as suitable models for the study of cell interactions and tissue engineering.

The human body is composed of 200 different types of cells, and each has distinct properties requiring scaffolds to have cell-matched mechanical properties and pore sizes. I will present mechanically tunable, biocompatible, and biodegradable liquid crystal elastomers and elastomers with a porous structure that have been made to specifically address the needs of two distinctive cell lines. Cellulose nanocrystals were used as biocompatible additives to tune the mechanical properties and salt leaching method used to engineer desired porous structure and how we created scaffolds with diverse elasticities and their effect on cell growth by using two distinct cell lines. I will finish by presenting how our 3D-LCE scaffolds provide a unique environment to longitudinally study spatial neuronal functions, not possible in conventional culture environments, and how we use LC anisotropy to guide directionality and alignment of cells.