Cultrex™ Synthetic Hydrogel

Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel banner featuring a 3D organoid structure, highlighting consistent, animal-free matrix for reliable 3D cell culture and organoid workflows.

 

Enhance Organoid Reproducibility With Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel

Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel is a fully defined, synthetically derived extracellular matrix designed to improve consistency in 3D cell culture and organoid workflows.

Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel delivers comparable performance to basement membrane extracts while reducing the inherent variability of animal-derived component formulations, providing a reliable foundation for advanced 3D cell culture systems and a path to the clinic for cell therapy applications.

Learn More About Synthetic Hydrogel

 

Why Use Synthetic Hydrogel?

Number 1

Improved Culture Consistency

This synthetic 3D cell culture hydrogel has a fully defined composition, enabling improved testing condition reproducibility for more consistent cultures, batch after batch.

Number 2

Uncompromised Performance

Delivers organoid growth and viability comparable to animal-derived BME matrices, supporting robust cell culture systems.

Number 3

Improved Imaging

Optimized optical clarity and compatibility with brightfield and fluorescence microscopy techniques for improved monitoring and imaging.

Number 4

Efficient Harvesting

Improved matrix metalloproteinase binding enables protease digestion for more efficient harvests.

Number 5

User-Friendly Format

Supplied as a convenient, ready-to-use kit and validated protocol. For unique applications, end users are welcome to further evaluate, optimize, and validate for their process needs.

 

 

Synthetic Hydrogel Applications

3D Cell Culture & Organoids

Supports 3D cultures and organoid types, including data for intestinal, lung, and liver organoids.

Cell Therapy Workflows

Using a synthetically derived formula supports compliance in cell therapy clinical uses.

 

Synthetic Hydrogel Data

Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel Supports Healthy Organoid Growth and Differentiation

Figure 1. Organoids expanded in the Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel exhibit expected cystic morphology, indicative of healthy baseline development. Upon differentiation, the organoids begin to lose their cystic morphology and start forming more specialized, structured tissues. This demonstrates Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel's ability to support both healthy initial organoid growth and subsequent differentiation into mature structures.

Organoids grown in Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel show intestinal-like characteristics as they differentiate.

 

Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel Supports Comparable Organoid Growth to Basement Membrane Extracts

Figure 2. Cultrex UltiMatrix BME domes were plated at 10,000 cell per 10μL hydrogel and Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel domes were plated at 15,000 cells. After three days in culture, comparable organoid growth is observed.

By using a slightly higher seeding density, cells grown with Synthetic Hydrogel achieve a similar growth rate to UltiMatrix BME.

 

Figure 3. Domes using animal derived matrix from another supplier and Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel were each plated at 10,000 cell per 10μL hydrogel. Morphologically similar organoid growth is observed after 4 and 5.5 days, respectively.

Organoids plated at the same seeding density with Synthetic Hydrogel will reach equivalent size to those grown in BME with additional time.

 

Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel Outperforms Alternative Synthetic Matrices

Organoids successfully grew in Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel but failed to grow when encapsulated in Competitor’s Defined Hydrogel.

Figure 4. Successful organoid growth observed in Cultrex Synthetic Hydrogel while organoids encapsulated in a competitor's defined hydrogel showed failed organoid formation and significant cell death by Day 4.

 

 

Additional Resources

Cultrex BME  Organoid & 3D Culture  Cell Culture