Månsson Lisa K, Pitenis Angela A, Wilson Maxwell Z
Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.
Center for BioEngineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Jun 14;10:903982. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.903982. eCollection 2022.
We review fundamental mechanisms and applications of OptoGels: hydrogels with light-programmable properties endowed by photoswitchable proteins ("optoproteins") found in nature. Light, as the primary source of energy on earth, has driven evolution to develop highly-tuned functionalities, such as phototropism and circadian entrainment. These functions are mediated through a growing family of optoproteins that respond to the entire visible spectrum ranging from ultraviolet to infrared by changing their structure to transmit signals inside of cells. In a recent series of articles, engineers and biochemists have incorporated optoproteins into a variety of extracellular systems, endowing them with photocontrollability. While other routes exist for dynamically controlling material properties, light-sensitive proteins have several distinct advantages, including precise spatiotemporal control, reversibility, substrate selectivity, as well as biodegradability and biocompatibility. Available conjugation chemistries endow OptoGels with a combinatorially large design space determined by the set of optoproteins and polymer networks. These combinations result in a variety of tunable material properties. Despite their potential, relatively little of the OptoGel design space has been explored. Here, we aim to summarize innovations in this emerging field and highlight potential future applications of these next generation materials. OptoGels show great promise in applications ranging from mechanobiology, to 3D cell and organoid engineering, and programmable cell eluting materials.
光控凝胶是一类具有光可编程特性的水凝胶，其特性由自然界中发现的光开关蛋白（“光蛋白”）赋予。光作为地球上的主要能量来源，推动了生物进化，使其发展出高度精细的功能，如向光性和昼夜节律调节。这些功能是通过越来越多的光蛋白介导的，这些光蛋白通过改变其结构在细胞内传递信号，从而对从紫外线到红外线的整个可见光谱做出反应。在最近的一系列文章中，工程师和生物化学家已将光蛋白整合到各种细胞外系统中，赋予它们光控性。虽然存在其他动态控制材料特性的途径，但光敏感蛋白具有几个明显的优势，包括精确的时空控制、可逆性、底物选择性以及生物可降解性和生物相容性。现有的共轭化学赋予光控凝胶一个由光蛋白和聚合物网络组合而成的庞大设计空间。这些组合产生了各种可调的材料特性。尽管光控凝胶具有潜力，但对其设计空间的探索还相对较少。在这里，我们旨在总结这一新兴领域的创新成果，并突出这些下一代材料未来可能的应用。光控凝胶在从机械生物学、3D细胞和类器官工程到可编程细胞洗脱材料等一系列应用中显示出巨大的潜力。
