Fig. 3

Rheological characterisation of biomaterial-based cell carriers employed in this study. a Viscosities of carriers determined at 25 °C with a constant shear rate of 1 s^− 1 (mean ± SD, n = 3). b Shear thinning properties of different carriers employed shown by steady shear rheological measurements. c Viscometric three-step thixotropy test to display structure recovery of the hydrogel immediately after disruption due to a high-magnitude shear-rate strain (10,000 s^− 1), followed by a low-magnitude strain (1 s^− 1) to monitor recovery of bulk properties. d CMC 0.5% ejected through a 30G needle, representative of injectability of biomaterials investigated. CMC carboxymethyl cellulose, ECM extracellular matrix