# name
Development of hydrogel cavities of  tuneable stiffness for the growth of  epithelial crypts

# metadata.dc.description[].value
Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Biomèdica. Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut. Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2023-2024. Tutor/Director: Jordi Comelles Pujadas

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Depending on their function, the epithelial cell monolayers that line the inner surfaces of organs 
adopt a variety of three-dimensional shapes. Traditional studies in vitro have been using mainly flat
cell culture dishes, overseeing the impact of these in vivo shapes in tissue function. Recent 
research has begun to address this issue, by trying to mimic the 3D structures found in tissues. 
However, those novel culture platforms still have some limitations, especially in cases where the 
architecture must correspond with the original tissue’s stiffness. Tissues have a quite low 
physiological rigidity, and most of the microfabrication techniques used nowadays need quite firm
materials to achieve the desired 3D structures without issue. A type of structure difficult to fabricate 
using soft materials are invaginations, which can be found in vivo in kidneys, lungs, and the small 
intestine. Low rigidity substrates are typically characterized by high deformability and lack of 
structural support, which can result in unprecise final features due to distortions of the material 
during the microfabricating process. 
In this project, 3D cavities have been fabricated into polyacrylamide (PA), a material which allows 
the tuneability of its rigidity by changing the proportion of acrylamides during the synthesis of the 
prepolymer solution. Replica moulding has been employed to acquire these structures. The 
invaginations successfully recreated key aspects of the in vivo environment, both with their shape 
and stiffness, and multiple copies were created easily, enabling precise characterization. Finally, 
after the assessment of the mechanical properties and the architectural features of the 
microcavities, the functionalization of the samples was successful, confirming the suitability of the 
resulting scaffold as a model to study epithelial growth, morphology, and conformity in these inward 
bended structures.

# metadata.dc.rights[].value
cc-by-nc-nd (c) Victòria Sanllehí i Barceló, 2024

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Treballs Finals de Grau (TFG) - Enginyeria Biomèdica

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Development of hydrogel cavities of  tuneable stiffness for the growth of  epithelial crypts