CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Cells in living beings are disposed in three dimensions and, consequently, growing cellsin 3D cultures are a more realistic, physiologically relevant than in a 2D environment,the last being the more extended due to their ease of use. For tissue engineering, 3Dcultures can provide more representative information of the cell proliferation anddifferentiation capacity as well as a measure of the need of vascularization of theartificial tissue. Here, we explore the use of two hydrogels, alginate (ALG) and silkfibroin (SF) as scaffolds for 3D cultures of cells, making focus on soft gelationprocesses that avoid compromising the cell viability. Alginate gelation was performedby Ca2+ crosslinking, which was tailored by the addition of Ca2+ containing particles andpH control, while SF gelation was induced by sonication. Then, the rheologicalproperties of the hydrogels containing ALG and/or SF was evaluated. Finally, theproliferation and differentiation capacity of MC3T3-E1 Subclone 4 cells were analyzedin both 2D and 3D environments. SF exhibited a more simple and customizable gelationprocedure than ALG, although the latter showed a more stable gel than the former. 3Dcultures, although more complicated to obtain, significantly changed the behavior ofcells. Consequently, this type of culture is the more appropriate to determine thecapacity of these hydrogels to perform as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.