Peptide-Based Hydrogels for Cranial Nerve Reinnervation

Abstract

Objectives:

Functionalize proteinogenic scaffold hydrogels with biomimetic peptides to enhance cell-matrix interactions. Hydrogels are recently being tapped as adjuncts in tissue engineering. Rationally designed polypeptide-based materials have advantage over other biomaterials for their ability to be engineered from the bottom up, tailored to the needs of specific potential application. We previously reported coiled-coil fibrillar hydrogel networks called hydrogelating self-assembling fibers SAF (hSAF), which were shown to support growth and differentiation of neural cells.

Methods:

Short biomimetic peptides were conjugated to hSAF fibres using biorthogonal copper-based click chemistry.

Results:

The resulting functionalized hSAF hydrogel was shown to promote preferential direction of axonal growth, more mature fibroblast formation, and early angiogenesis.

Conclusions:

We have demonstrated in this study a chemically defined bottom-up approach in biologic scaffold synthesis with straightforward technique in incorporating specific biomolecular signal under physiologic conditions, which promises a robust platform in tissue engineering such as cranial nerve reinnervation.