Department of Materials Science and Engineering, ‡School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, and ∥Department of Chemistry, Drexel University , 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States.
Biomacromolecules. 2017 Jun 12;18(6):1713-1723. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b00032. Epub 2017 May 1.
Aging and degeneration of human tissue come with the loss of tissue water retention and associated changes in physical properties partially due to degradation and subsequent loss of proteoglycans. We demonstrated a novel method of fabrication of biomimetic proteoglycans, which mimic the three-dimensional bottlebrush architecture and physical behavior of natural proteoglycans responsible for tissue hydration and structural integrity. Biomimetic proteoglycans are synthesized by an end-on attachment of natural chondroitin sulfate bristles to a synthetic poly(acryloyl chloride) backbone. Atomic force microscopy imaging suggested three-dimensional core-bristle architecture, and hydrodynamic size of biomimetic proteoglycans was estimated at 61.3 ± 12.3 nm using dynamic light scattering. Water uptake results indicated that biomimetic proteoglycans had a ∼50% increased water uptake compared to native aggrecan and chondroitin sulfate alone. The biomimetic proteoglycans are cytocompatible in the physiological ranges of concentrations and could be potentially used to repair damaged or diseased tissue with depleted proteoglycan content.
人体组织的衰老和退化伴随着组织保水能力的丧失以及物理特性的变化，部分原因是蛋白聚糖的降解和随后的丢失。我们展示了一种制造仿生蛋白聚糖的新方法，这种仿生蛋白聚糖模拟了三维瓶刷结构和天然蛋白聚糖的物理行为，天然蛋白聚糖负责组织水合和结构完整性。仿生蛋白聚糖通过天然硫酸软骨素刷毛的末端连接到合成的聚（丙烯酰氯）主链上合成。原子力显微镜成像表明存在三维核心刷毛结构，使用动态光散射法估计仿生蛋白聚糖的流体力学尺寸约为 61.3 ± 12.3nm。水吸收结果表明，与天然聚集蛋白聚糖和单独的硫酸软骨素相比，仿生蛋白聚糖的水吸收增加了约 50%。在生理浓度范围内，仿生蛋白聚糖具有细胞相容性，可用于修复蛋白聚糖含量减少的受损或患病组织。
