LAUSR

The tuning of viscoelastic properties of supramolecular hydrogel to be used as biological materials substrates in tissue engineering has become significantly relevant in recent years due to their ability to influence cell fate. With this in mind, we went ahead to enhance the stability and mechanical properties of a derived C2-phenylalanine gelator (LPF), by simply incorporating derivatives of the polysaccharide dextran (carboxylmethyl dextran (CMDH) and aminodextran (AD)) as additives in order to promote hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking with the gelator. The adhesion and spreading behavior of NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells was significantly improved on LPF-CMDH3 substrate owing to its enhanced mechanical properties. The tuning of mechanical properties of therein hydrogels via facile incorporation of biodegradable and biocompatible functionalized additives opens up avenues for strengthening the supposed weak supramolecular gelators, and hence increasing their potential of being employed largely in the field of tissue engineering.