随着技术的发展，组织工程学的研究不再仅仅局限于设计具有适当的机械性能和生物相容性、耐久性，或可生物降解性的材料，更希望让这些材料对细胞的生长、行为和功能进行调控。本研究拟建立能长时间原位监测体外细胞培养过程中水凝胶结构性能变化的研究方法，以深入系统地探讨细胞与水凝胶之间的动态相互作用对生物材料结构、性能和降解过程的影响，及其给细胞行为和组织生长带来的反馈作用；探索各种调控因素在这个复杂过程所起的作用，构建水凝胶的结构、性能和降解机制与细胞行为以及组织生长关系的模型，显著增进我们对细胞如何与周围微环境相互作用，以及这些动态的相互作用在指导干细胞分化、癌症的转移等一些生物问题中所起的作用的理解，为制备能够调控细胞行为并最终能够实现组织修复和器官再生的新型材料提供理论指导。

With the rapid development of tissue engineering technology, the concept of repair materials required for the death or defects organ changes from the initial extracellular matrix substitute to the development of new materials which can control the behavior of cells and the seamless integrate to living organisms. Recent studies have revealed that tissue cells are exquisitely sensitive to their ECM microenvironment and the complex, dynamic and reciprocal interactions that occur at the cell-ECM interface in the native tissue microenvironment can have profound influences on cell function, fate and tissue formation. In this project, in situ measures of cell/hydrogel complex based on rheologic technique will be developed and silk fibroin hydrogen and peptide-polymer hybrid hydrogel will be used as model substitutes for ECM, to investigate the relationships between cell behaviors (such as: adhesion, proliferation, differentiate, migration, morphogenesis, as well as apoptosis) and molecular structure, properties, as well as biodegradation kinetic of hydrogel on nanoscopic and molecular levels, and determine the key parameters of the process. Based on the experimental data, the theoretical model will be built to explain the impact of these dynamic interactions on the the aggregate state of molecular chains, three-dimention network struture, performence and degradation mechanism of hydrogel, as well as the feedback actions of hydrogel on cell behaviors and tissue fomation. Meanwhile, the model will be capable to lead to a better understanding of the influence of interplay between cell and melieu on physiological functions of cells, disease processes, and tissue-repair strategies.