Modelling spatiotemporal gradients of biomolecules on polyethylene glycol hydrogels

Abstract

The di usion of the stemness proteins Epidermal grow factor, R-spondin and Noggin (involved in the intestinal epithelial development) within a hydrogel material was simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software. For the model, similar sized model proteins; Insulin, Carbonic Anhydrase and Bovine Serum Albumin were used. The steady state times and concentrations were determined at the gel surface for a rectangular and a pillar array model. It has been found that geometry was important and had to be implemented in order to better predict the surface concentrations. The gradient obtained along the pillar surface was most evident for BSA (Noggin). We believe that this model can be useful in designing experiments in intestinal epithelial development studies.