Growth and Characterization of Multicellular Spheroids in Cellulose Derived Hydrogels as an Artificial Three-Dimensional Scaffold

The Young’s modulus of each hydrogel was performed on a Mach-1 Mechanical tester (Biomomentum Inc., QC) using cyclic compression and parallel plate geometry. The hydrogels for testing were pre-formed into disks measuring 3.25 mm in height by 14 mm in diameter. Compression was executed by applying 20% strain at a rate of 0.03 mm/s in the +z direction. The Young’s modulus of the hydrogels was determined by fitting the linear portion of the

resulting stress-strain curve. All hydrogels were equilibrated for 24 h prior to testing with all trails performed at 37C in triplicate.