200 Chapter 8 is essential to study the corresponding behaviour of cells during fibrotic diseases [34]. Ruthenium crosslinking on ECM-derived hydrogels provides an ideal opportunity to recreate the (patho)physiological stiffness. This is due to the fact that it does not require additional modifications on the ECM itself, enabling the modification of the mechanical properties while keeping the biochemical composition of the ECM constant. Thus these hydrogels mimic only the altered mechanical properties Figure 7: Fluorescence images for the comparison of cell nuclei (DAPI), cell membrane (WGA) and cytoskeleton (α-SMA) on MRC-5 fibroblasts seeded on LdECM and Ru-LdECM hydrogels at day 7. A) Top row: Stained LdECM hydrogels imaged at original objective magnification 40×, bottom row: digitally magnified versions of the respective images B) Stained Ru-LdECM hydrogels imaged at original objective magnification 40×, bottom row: digitally magnified versions of the respective Scale bars: 100 μm. LdECM: Lung-derived ECM Hydrogels, Ru-LdECM: Ruthenium-crosslinked Lung-derived ECM Hydrogels. WGA: Wheat germ agglutinin, α-SMA: alpha smooth muscle actin
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