Ln³⁺‐Mediated Self‐Assembly of a Collagen Peptide into Luminescent Banded Helical Nanoropes

Abstract

Design of biomimetic peptides to achieve the desired properties of natural collagen has much potential to build functional biomaterials. A collagen-peptide/Ln system has been constructed and self-assembled to form helical nanoropes with a distinct periodic banding pattern characteristic of natural collagen. The fully reversible self-assembly is specifically mediated by lanthanide ions, but not by other commonly used divalent metal ions. Lanthanide ions not only provide an external biocompatible stimulus of the assembly, but also play as a functional unit to endow the assembled materials with easily tunable photoluminescence. To our knowledge, this is the first report of collagen-peptide-based materials with exquisite nanorope structure and excellent photoluminescent features. These novel luminescent nanomaterials may have great potential in cell imaging, medical diagnostics, and luminescent scaffolds for cell cultivation.

Organometallic Hydrogels

“…The Xiao group reported the first collagen‐peptide‐based hydrogel with excellent photoluminescence that formed via lanthanide‐ion‐mediated self‐assembly. The self‐assembled nanoropes indicated great potentials in cell imaging, medical diagnostics, and cell cultivation .…”

Designing a bioactive scaffold from coassembled collagen–laminin short peptide hydrogels for controlling cell behaviour

“…[17][18][19][20][21] Many approaches have been adapted to elucidate the driving forces of self-assembly in synthetic systems mimicking the similar steps as that of natural collagen, but it still remains a challenge. 11 To overcome such challenge, researchers explored wide range of intermolecular interactions like electrostatic interactions, 11,22,23 p-p stacking, 24 hydrophobic interactions, 25 p-cation interactions, 26 metal-ligand interactions [27][28][29][30][31] and triple helical nucleation 32 and accessed diverse higher order structures. 33,34 Hartgerink and co-workers designed a 36-mer CMP which can mimic each step of multihierarchical assembly of collagen.…”

Luminescent Sodium Deoxycholate Ionogel Induced by Eu3+ in Ethylammonium Nitrate

“…20 Among them, the hydrogels based on sodium lithocholate or deoxycholate (NaDC) can be formed under appropriate pH conditions. 19,21,22 Adding metal ions to BS systems, however, can improve gel performance because the introduced metal ions not only triggers the self-assembly process 23 but also imparts unique properties to gels such as conductivity 24 and luminescence. 25 Huang et al have studied the photoluminescent hydrogel produced from sodium cholate (NaC) and lanthanide ions.…”