Fig. 1

Pancreatic differentiation of iPSCs in 3D led to prominent tubular network. a Expression of pluripotency genes OCT4/NANOG and DE signature genes SOX17/FOXA2 during S0, S1, and S4 of PP differentiation in 2D culture. b Expression of PP signature genes PDX1, SOX9, NKX6.1, and PTF1A in S0, S1, and S4 of PP differentiation in 2D culture. c Flow cytometry results of 2D-differentiated S4 cells stained with PDX1 and NKX6.1. d Schematic of thiol-norbornene photo-click reaction to form covalent thioether crosslink. e Shear moduli of GelNB hydrogels for 3D PP differentiation. 5 wt% GelNB was crosslinked by either 0.6 wt% or 1.0 wt% PEG4SH to create hydrogels with 0.5 kPa or 1 kPa shear moduli. A two-tailed t-test was utilized for statistical analysis (** represents p-value < 0.001). f Effect of GelNB hydrogel stiffness on the morphology of 3D encapsulated cells after DE (S1), PGT (S2), PF (S3), and PP (S4) differentiation. g Effect of 3D GelNB hydrogel stiffness on SOX9, GATA4, NKX6.1, and PDX1 expression. At least three representative images were taken (10 slices in each z-stack with a slice height of 10 µm)