Patil Vaidehi A, Masters Kristyn S
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA.
Bioengineering (Basel). 2020 Dec 16;7(4):163. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering7040163.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in mammals, accounting for approximately one-third of the total protein in the human body. Thus, it is a logical choice for the creation of biomimetic environments, and there is a long history of using collagen matrices for various tissue engineering applications. However, from a biomaterial perspective, the use of collagen-only scaffolds is associated with many challenges. Namely, the mechanical properties of collagen matrices can be difficult to tune across a wide range of values, and collagen itself is not highly amenable to direct chemical modification without affecting its architecture or bioactivity. Thus, many approaches have been pursued to design scaffold environments that display critical features of collagen but enable improved tunability of physical and biological characteristics. This paper provides a brief overview of approaches that have been employed to create such engineered collagen matrices. Specifically, these approaches include blending of collagen with other natural or synthetic polymers, chemical modifications of denatured collagen, de novo creation of collagen-mimetic chains, and reductionist methods to incorporate collagen moieties into other materials. These advancements in the creation of tunable, engineered collagen matrices will continue to enable the interrogation of novel and increasingly complex biological questions.
胶原蛋白是哺乳动物中含量最丰富的蛋白质，约占人体总蛋白的三分之一。因此，它是创建仿生环境的合理选择，并且使用胶原蛋白基质进行各种组织工程应用已有很长的历史。然而，从生物材料的角度来看，仅使用胶原蛋白的支架存在许多挑战。也就是说，胶原蛋白基质的机械性能很难在很宽的范围内进行调节，而且胶原蛋白本身在不影响其结构或生物活性的情况下不太适合直接进行化学修饰。因此，人们采用了许多方法来设计具有胶原蛋白关键特征但能改善物理和生物学特性可调性的支架环境。本文简要概述了用于创建此类工程化胶原蛋白基质的方法。具体而言，这些方法包括将胶原蛋白与其他天然或合成聚合物混合、对变性胶原蛋白进行化学修饰、从头创建模拟胶原蛋白的链，以及将胶原蛋白部分整合到其他材料中的简化方法。可调谐工程化胶原蛋白基质创建方面的这些进展将继续有助于探究新的、日益复杂的生物学问题。
