Center for Bio-Responsive Assembly, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea.
Nat Commun. 2011 Sep 6;2:459. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1465.
Aqueous nanofibres constructed by the self-assembly of small amphiphilic molecules can become entangled to form hydrogels that have a variety of applications including tissue engineering, and controlled drug delivery. The hydrogels are formed through the random physical cross-linkings of flexible nanofibres. Here we report that self-assembled nanofibres with a nematic substructure are aligned into a nematic liquid crystal and are spontaneously fixed in the aligned state to give rise to anisotropic gels. The liquid-crystal gels respond to temperature by transforming into a fluid solution upon cooling. Thus, the nanofibre solution can be mixed with cells at room temperature and then can be transformed into gels to encapsulate the cells in a three-dimensional environment upon being heated to physiological temperatures. We found that the cells grow within the three-dimensional networks without compromising the cell viability, and that subsequent cooling triggers the encapsulated cells to be released through a sol-gel transition.
由两亲小分子自组装形成的水基纳米纤维可以缠结形成水凝胶，具有多种应用，包括组织工程和控制药物释放。水凝胶是通过柔性纳米纤维的随机物理交联形成的。在这里，我们报告说，具有向列亚结构的自组装纳米纤维被排列成向列液晶，并自发地固定在排列状态，从而产生各向异性凝胶。液晶凝胶通过在冷却时转化为流体溶液来响应温度。因此，纳米纤维溶液可以在室温下与细胞混合，然后在加热到生理温度时转化为凝胶，将细胞封装在三维环境中。我们发现，细胞在三维网络中生长，而不会影响细胞活力，随后的冷却会触发通过溶胶-凝胶转变释放封装的细胞。
