Viscoelasticity of hydrazone crosslinked poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels directs chondrocyte morphology during mechanical deformationElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/d0bm00860e

Chondrocyte deformation influences disease progression and tissue regeneration in load-bearing joints. In this work, we found that viscoelasticity of dynamic covalent crosslinks temporally modulates the biophysical transmission of physiologically relevant compressive strains to encapsulated chondrocytes. Chondrocytes in viscoelastic alky-hydrazone hydrogels demonstrated (91.4 ± 4.5%) recovery of native rounded morphologies during mechanical deformation, whereas primarily elastic benzyl-hydrazone hydrogels significantly limited morphological recovery (21.2 ± 1.4%).