Optically Responsive and Mechanically Tunable Colloid‐In‐Liquid Crystal Gels that Support Growth of Fibroblasts

Abstract

Whereas low molecular weight liquid crystals (LCs) are too soft to support the culture of fibroblast cells, gels formed by polystyrene microparticles dispersed in LCs can be mechanically tuned to support the cell culture. These self-supporting gels can be readily molded, thus facilitating their use for cell culture, and they contain micrometer-sized domains of LCs that can be oriented by interactions at the surfaces confining the gels. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.