Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica-Based Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Enhanced Cell Adhesion in 3D Hydrogel Network

The chemical functionalization of nanomaterials with bioactive molecules has been used extensively to generate functional biomaterials for tissue engineering, drug delivery, and wound healing applications and to study the cell-material interactions. In this context, this study describes the synthesis of PEG and PMO based nanocomposite hydrogels as new 3D biomaterial and the impact of surface functionalization of PMOs on cell adhesion in 3D network of PEG hydrogel. The results show that the affinity of cells to the PEG hydrogel can be controlled by using bio- molecule functionalized PMO particles. The observed results are attributed to the large nanoscale surface area of PMOs and the cell adhesive character of the used bioactive molecules on the surface of PMOs.