Modulated Crosslinking of Macroporous Polymeric Cryogel Affects In Vitro Cell Adhesion and Growth Anuj Tripathi, a Tanushree Vishnoi, a Deepti Singh, Ashok Kumar* 1. Introduction Tissue regeneration requires a well orchestrated integra- tion of diverse cellular and molecular cues for cell adherence, migration, proliferation, differentiation and remodeling of extracellular matrix (ECM) within a three- dimensional (3D) architecture. Molecular and physical information coded within the extracellular matrix of cells transfer the information for further cellular processes. [1] Therefore, the surface plays an important role for most biological processes. The main dogma is to generate a complex information-coded 3D architecture that can influence the cell behavior in a desired fashion for tissue engineering applications. Polymers are key players in many 3D matrices used in tissue engineering applications as the modulation of their physical and chemical properties holds a direct effect on therapeutic promise. [2,3] These matrices are regarded as substrates for cell growth, allowing adherence and proliferation, and thus contributing for tissue reconstruction. Being a key component of tissue Full Paper Dr. A. Tripathi, T. Vishnoi, Dr. D. Singh, Prof. A. Kumar Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016, UP, India E-mail: ashokkum@iitk.ac.in Dr. A. Tripathi Present address: Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai-400085, India Dr. D. Singh Present address: Polymer gel cluster research center, Yeungnam univeristy, 214 Dae-dong, Gyeongbuk 712–749 South Korea a A.T. and T.V. contributed equally to this work. Cell to matrix interactions affect in vitro cell adherence and proliferation and further decide the fate of tissue development for biomedical applications. This study demonstrates the role of crosslinking in altering the surface properties of 3D porous cryogel matrices. Glutaraldehyde and 1-ethyl-3(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbo- diimide crosslinkers are used separately for the crosslinking of alginate and gelatin (i.e., AG G and AG EN ), respectively. The difference in crosslinking affects the physiochemical proper- ties of these matrices leading to variable cell behavior as demonstrated using four different cell types, which show homogeneous cell growth in AG G and spheroid cell growth in AG EN . The present study shows successful use of controlled crosslinking in directing the cell growth for tissue engineering. ß 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim wileyonlinelibrary.com Macromol. Biosci. 2013, DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201200398 1 Early View Publication; these are NOT the final page numbers, use DOI for citation !! R