To date, the development of anticancer drugs has been conducted using two-dimensional (2D) cell culture systems. However, since cancer cells in the body are generated and developed in three-dimensional (3D) microenvironments, the use of 2D anticancer drug screening can make it difficult to accurately evaluate the anticancer effects of drug candidates. Therefore, as a step towards developing a cancer cellfriendly 3D microenvironment based on a combination of vinylsulfone-functionalized polyethylene glycol (PEG-VS) with dicysteine-containing crosslinker peptides with an intervening matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-specific cleavage site, the types of MMPs secreted from human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells, a representative cancer cell, were analyzed transcriptionally and translationally. MMP3 was confirmed to be the most highly expressed protease secreted by HepG2 cells. This knowledge will be important in the design of a crosslinker necessary for the construction of PEG-based hydrogels customized for the 3D culture of HepG2 cells.

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

• Young Jae Lee(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea)
• Keun Cheon Kim(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea)
• Jeong Mook Lim(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University,Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University,)
• Seung Tae Lee(Kustogen Inc., Chuncheon 24341, Korea, Department of Applied Animal Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea) Corresponding author