Disulfide Crosslinked Hydrogels Made From the Hydra Stinging Cell Protein, Minicollagen-1

Abstract

Minicollagens from cnidarian nematocysts are attractive potential building blocks for the creation of strong, lightweight and tough polymeric materials with the potential for dynamic and reconfigurable crosslinking to modulate functionality. In this study, the Hydra magnipapillata minicollagen-1 isoform was recombinantly expressed in bacteria, and a high throughput purification protocol was developed to generate milligram levels of pure protein without column chromatography. The resulting minicollagen-1 preparation demonstrated spectral properties similar to those observed with collagen and polyproline sequences as well as the ability to self-assemble into oriented fibers and bundles. Photo-crosslinking with Ru(II)(bpy) 3 2+ was used to create robust hydrogels that were analyzed by mechanical testing. Interestingly, the minicollagen-1 hydrogels could be dissolved with reducing agents, indicating that ruthenium-mediated photo-crosslinking was able to induce disulfide metathesis to create the hydrogels. Together, this work is an important first step in creating minicollagen-based materials whose properties can be manipulated through static and reconfigurable post-translational modifications.

Biomolecule-Based Optical Metamaterials: Design and Applications

“…Several hydrogels have been made from fibrillar proteins such as silk, collagen, mini collagen 1, keratin and even with the intercalation of other proteins such as bone morphogenetic protein-2 or cellulose crystals. Most of these efforts are focused on tissue engineering for repair and regeneration, due to inherent biocompatibility and mechanical properties [ 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 ]. However, because of properties such as high transparency, and thermal resistance there is recent interest in the development of hydrogels for applications in photonic devices [ 101 ].…”