Abstract
The term macromolecular crowding is used to describe equilibria and kinetics of biochemical reactions and biological processes that occur via mutual volume exclusion of macromolecules in a highly crowded structureless medium. In vivo, the extracellular space is heavily crowded by a diverse range of macromolecules and thus, biological processes occur rapidly, whilst in vitro, in the absence of macromolecules, the same processes occur very slowly, if they are initiated at all (1-3). This talk will discuss the concept of macromolecular crowding, alone or in combination with other in vitro microenvironment modulators, in tendon engineering context.
Acknowledgements: This work has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 866126. This publication has emanated from research supported by grants from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under grant number 19/FFP/6982.
