Cell Adhesive Peptides as a Powerful Tool for Cell Engineering

摘要

Tissue engineering aims to create functional tissues or organ-replacements using various combinations of materials and cells. Materials that provide a support or scaffold for tissue formation play key roles in various tissue-engineering approaches [1]. Extra cellular matrix (ECM) components including laminin, collagen, and fibronectin, and their active peptides are potential candidates for affording the cell binding activities to materials. Laminins are a major component and cell adhesion protein of the basement membrane matrix. Laminin has diverse biological activities including promotion of cell adhesion, migration, neurite outgrowth, tumor metastasis, and angiogenesis blood vessel formation [2]. Our goal is to identify cell type-specific active sequences from all of the laminin isoforms and to use the biologically active peptides for biomaterials.