Materials and Physical Biology Division, School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Nat Chem Biol. 2021 Mar;17(3):351-359. doi: 10.1038/s41589-020-00697-z. Epub 2020 Dec 21.
Living organisms have evolved sophisticated cell-mediated biomineralization mechanisms to build structurally ordered, environmentally adaptive composite materials. Despite advances in biomimetic mineralization research, it remains difficult to produce mineralized composites that integrate the structural features and 'living' attributes of their natural counterparts. Here, inspired by natural graded materials, we developed living patterned and gradient composites by coupling light-inducible bacterial biofilm formation with biomimetic hydroxyapatite (HA) mineralization. We showed that both the location and the degree of mineralization could be regulated by tailoring functional biofilm growth with spatial and biomass density control. The cells in the composites remained viable and could sense and respond to environmental signals. Additionally, the composites exhibited a maximum 15-fold increase in Young's modulus after mineralization and could be applied to repair damage in a spatially controlled manner. Beyond insights into the mechanism of formation of natural graded composites, our study provides a viable means of fabricating living composites with dynamic responsiveness and environmental adaptability.
生物体能进化出复杂的细胞介导的生物矿化机制，以构建结构有序、环境适应性强的复合材料。尽管仿生矿化研究取得了进展，但仍然难以生产出具有天然对应物结构特征和“生命”属性的矿化复合材料。在这里，受天然梯度材料的启发，我们通过将光诱导细菌生物膜形成与仿生羟磷灰石（HA）矿化相结合，开发了活的图案化和梯度复合材料。我们表明，通过空间和生物量密度控制来调整功能生物膜的生长，就可以调节矿化的位置和程度。复合材料中的细胞仍然具有活力，可以感知和响应环境信号。此外，复合材料在矿化后杨氏模量最大增加了 15 倍，并且可以以空间控制的方式用于修复损伤。除了对天然梯度复合材料形成机制的深入了解之外，我们的研究还为制造具有动态响应和环境适应性的活复合材料提供了一种可行的方法。
