Mmp-sensitive Self-assembled Peptide Amphiphile Nanofiber Networks For Nanostructured Tissue Engineering

摘要

The ultimate goal of synthetic scaffolds is to mimic the chemical and biological complexity of natural extracellular matrix (ECM) which achieves the construction of well-organized materials through self-assembly. Here we have developed nanostructured synthetic ECM from peptide amphiphiles (PA) which not only contain biological moieties but also mimic natural self-assembly process to create high order structures. The PA contains cell adhesive ligands (RGDS) and cell-mediated proteolytically degradable sites (matrix metallo-proteinases (MMP-2) attached to a sixteen carbon alkyl tails. The PA was capable of encapsulating cells by self-assembly into nanofibers networks using a divalent ion such as calcium at physiological condition.