[DJNorman]

Hi all, having just came across this forum a minute ago I'm new here so hopefully won't make any mistakes/post in wrong section.

Anyway I was looking for some input on the hydrogels I'm working with at the moment.

They are Fmoc-dipeptides that form hydrogels through their aromaticity and pi-stacking. Their main use is for 3D cell culture and their stiffnesses can be tuned for different cell types.

My issue is that upon the introduction of the gels to DMEM cell media, they will increase in stiffness, I think through induced cross-linking. I'm not sure if maybe the salts in DMEM are having a part to play in this, maybe causing more aggregation of the peptides through charge-shielding?

Another issue is that if the gels come in contact with FBS, they will degrade at a much faster rate. I am thinking this is maybe due to some binding with bovine serum albumin that causes disruption of the supramolecular structures?

Really, I just want to see if you guys could help me ponder this out. Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!