Biomacromolecules. 2021 May 10;22(5):2094-2106. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.1c00205. Epub 2021 Apr 28.
The apparent rise of bone disorders demands advanced treatment protocols involving tissue engineering. Here, we describe self-assembling tetrapeptide scaffolds for the growth and osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The rationally designed peptides are synthetic amphiphilic self-assembling peptides composed of four amino acids that are nontoxic. These tetrapeptides can quickly solidify to nanofibrous hydrogels that resemble the extracellular matrix and provide a three-dimensional (3D) environment for cells with suitable mechanical properties. Furthermore, we can easily tune the stiffness of these peptide hydrogels by just increasing the peptide concentration, thus providing a wide range of peptide hydrogels with different stiffnesses for 3D cell culture applications. Since successful bone regeneration requires both osteogenesis and vascularization, our scaffold was found to be able to promote angiogenesis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) . The results presented suggest that ultrashort peptide hydrogels are promising candidates for applications in bone tissue engineering.
显然，骨骼疾病的发病率不断上升，这就需要先进的治疗方案，包括组织工程。在这里，我们描述了用于人骨髓间充质干细胞（hMSCs）生长和成骨分化的自组装四肽支架。这些经过合理设计的肽是由四个氨基酸组成的合成两亲性自组装肽，它们没有毒性。这些四肽可以迅速凝固成类似细胞外基质的纳米纤维水凝胶，为细胞提供具有合适机械性能的三维（3D）环境。此外，我们可以通过增加肽浓度轻松调节这些肽水凝胶的硬度，从而为 3D 细胞培养应用提供具有不同硬度的广泛肽水凝胶。由于成功的骨再生需要成骨和血管生成，我们发现该支架能够促进人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVEC）的血管生成。研究结果表明，超短肽水凝胶是骨组织工程应用的有前途的候选材料。
