Enzymatic hydrogelation is a totally different process to the heating-cooling gelation process, in which the pre- cursors of the gelators can be involved during the formation of self-assembled structures. Using thixot...Enzymatic hydrogelation is a totally different process to the heating-cooling gelation process, in which the pre- cursors of the gelators can be involved during the formation of self-assembled structures. Using thixotropic hy- drogels formed by a super gelator as our studied system, we demonstrated that the enzyme concentration/conversion rate of enzymatic reaction had a strong influence on the morphology of resulting self-assembled nanostructures and the property of resulting hydrogels. The principle demonstrated in this study not only helps to understand and elucidate the phenomenon of self-assembly triggered by enzymes in biological systems, but also offers a unique methodology to control the morphology of self-assembled structures for specific applications such as controlled drug re- lease.展开更多
In soft connective tissues,the extracellular matrix(ECM)provides spatiotemporally well-defined mechanical and chemical cues that regulate the functions of residing cells.However,it remains challenging to replicate the...In soft connective tissues,the extracellular matrix(ECM)provides spatiotemporally well-defined mechanical and chemical cues that regulate the functions of residing cells.However,it remains challenging to replicate these essential features in synthetic biomaterials.Here,we develop a self-sorting double network hydrogel(SDNH)with spatially well-defined bioactive ligands as synthetic ECM.Specifically,the SDNH is made of two peptides that can independently self-assemble into fibers of different microscopic features,mimicking the hierarchical protein assemblies in ECM.Each peptide contains a photo-reactive moiety for orthogonally patterning bioactive molecules(i.e.,cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartate(cRGD)and osteogenic growth peptide(OGP))using UV and visible light.As a proof-of-principle,we demonstrate the engineering of SDNH with spatially separated or colocalized cRGD and OGP molecules to control the response of encapsulated stem cells.Our study represents an important step towards defining the mechanical and biochemical cues of synthetic ECM using advanced chemical biology tools.展开更多
文摘Enzymatic hydrogelation is a totally different process to the heating-cooling gelation process, in which the pre- cursors of the gelators can be involved during the formation of self-assembled structures. Using thixotropic hy- drogels formed by a super gelator as our studied system, we demonstrated that the enzyme concentration/conversion rate of enzymatic reaction had a strong influence on the morphology of resulting self-assembled nanostructures and the property of resulting hydrogels. The principle demonstrated in this study not only helps to understand and elucidate the phenomenon of self-assembly triggered by enzymes in biological systems, but also offers a unique methodology to control the morphology of self-assembled structures for specific applications such as controlled drug re- lease.
基金This research is supported mainly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.22137003,21977043,and 11804147).
文摘In soft connective tissues,the extracellular matrix(ECM)provides spatiotemporally well-defined mechanical and chemical cues that regulate the functions of residing cells.However,it remains challenging to replicate these essential features in synthetic biomaterials.Here,we develop a self-sorting double network hydrogel(SDNH)with spatially well-defined bioactive ligands as synthetic ECM.Specifically,the SDNH is made of two peptides that can independently self-assemble into fibers of different microscopic features,mimicking the hierarchical protein assemblies in ECM.Each peptide contains a photo-reactive moiety for orthogonally patterning bioactive molecules(i.e.,cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartate(cRGD)and osteogenic growth peptide(OGP))using UV and visible light.As a proof-of-principle,we demonstrate the engineering of SDNH with spatially separated or colocalized cRGD and OGP molecules to control the response of encapsulated stem cells.Our study represents an important step towards defining the mechanical and biochemical cues of synthetic ECM using advanced chemical biology tools.
