Extended Data Fig. 2: Schematics of the NC-(FL)8 (native crosslinked) hydrogels.
From: Cartilage-like protein hydrogels engineered via entanglement
The elastomeric protein (FL)8 was first dissolved in PBS to a high concentration (~200 mg/mL) (a). Upon photo-crosslinking, (FL)8 were crosslinked into a hydrogel network lacking any chain entanglements, owing to the short length of folded (FL)8, resulting in the N-NC (native NC) hydrogel (b). When denatured in GdHCl, the (FL)8 in the hydrogel network unfold, and behave as random coils. The resultant D-NC (denatured NC) hydrogel also remains free of chain entanglements (c).
