Fig. 1

Synthetic fibrous extracellular matrix with orthogonal control over fibril alignment and stiffness. a Microfabricated poly(dimethylsiloxane) multiwell substrate possessing a 5 × 5 array of DexMA fiber matrices, each suspended over a well to isolate the matrix from mechanical effects of a rigid underlying support (scale bar: 2 mm). Inset: tilescan of four DexMA-cRGD matrices (cyan) seeded with NIH3T3 fibroblasts (magenta) (scale bar: 500 µm). b Confocal projections of matrices (cyan) fabricated with varying spacing between collecting electrodes to modulate fiber alignment (scale bar: 20 µm). c Quantification of fiber alignment as a function of electrode separation distance (n = 9 matrices per group). d Young’s modulus of aligned (electrode separation of 0 mm) and non-aligned (electrode separation of 25 mm) matrices as a function of ultraviolet (UV)-initiated crosslinking of matrix fibers. n = number of matrices per group as indicated within each bar. e Composite confocal fluorescence images of representative NIH3T3 fibroblasts in soft (top row, 0 J cm⁻²) and stiff (bottom row, 3 J cm⁻²) matrices; rhodamine-labeled matrix fibers (cyan), F-actin (magenta), and nuclei (yellow) (scale bar: 20 µm). All data presented as mean ± s.d.; * indicates a statistically significant comparison with p < 0.05; n.s. indicates a non-significant comparison (one-way analysis of variance)