Smart Adhesive Peptide Nanofibers for Cell Capture and Release.

Efficient cell capture and release methods are important for single-cell analysis of pathological samples. It requires not only strong cell binding but also mild cell release to maximize the number of collected cells while maintaining their viability. Here, we report a smart cell capture and release system based on self-assembling adhesive peptide nanofibers. We installed a versatile surface binding motif, 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine to the C-terminus of a self-assembling peptide. We show that the designed peptide can self-assemble at physiological pH to establish strong cell and substrate binding. The binding strength is dramatically reduced upon the dissembling of the peptide fibers triggered by raising the pH to slightly basic. We demonstrate the efficient capture of four different cells using this system. The capture rates are comparable to fibrin glue and the released cells retain higher viability than those released by enzymatic digestion approaches. Given that this method is highly efficient, biocompatible, and easy to implement, we anticipate that this approach can be widely applied to cell capture and release for single cell analysis and cell therapy.