Nanoengineered Peptide‐Based Antimicrobial Conductive Supramolecular Biomaterial for Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Owing to their dynamic nature and ordered architecture, supramolecular materials strikingly resemble organic components of living systems. Although short‐peptide self‐assembled nanostructured hydrogels are regarded as intriguing supramolecular materials for biotechnology, their application is often limited due to their low stability and considerable challenge of combining other desirable properties. Herein, a di‐Fmoc‐based hydrogelator containing the cell‐adhesive Arg–Gly–Asp (RGD) fragment that forms a mechanically stable, self‐healing hydrogel is designed. Molecular dynamics simulation reveals the presence of RGD segments on the surface of the hydrogel fibers, highlighting their cell adherence capacity. Aiming to impart conductivity, the 3D network of the hydrogel is further nanoengineered by incorporating polyaniline (PAni). The composite hydrogels demonstrate semiconductivity, excellent antibacterial activity, and DNA binding capacity. Cardiac cells grown on the surface of the composite hydrogels form functional synchronized monolayers. Taken together, the combination of these attributes in a single hydrogel suggests it as an exceptional candidate for functional supramolecular biomaterial designed for electrogenic tissue engineering.

Injectable Magnetic-Responsive Short-Peptide Supramolecular Hydrogels: Ex Vivo and In Vivo Evaluation

“…This positive effect of RGD in cell cultures is not surprising, since it is known to be a promoter of cell adhesion. 25 , 47 Regarding the role of MNP and in agreement with our results for peptide hydrogels, several previous studies reported that when MNP are added to polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering applications, they stimulate adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of cells in vitro and even bone formation in vivo. 48 − 50 In the present work, differences between cell proliferation in different samples correlated well with differences in mechanical properties: Stronger hydrogels (higher G ′) connected with larger numbers of cells at a given cell culture period.…”

Molecular Co‐Assembly of Two Building Blocks Harnesses Both their Attributes into a Functional Supramolecular Hydrogel

“…Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy spectra of Gel 5 exhibited two bands in the Amide I region (Figure S3, Supporting Information) at 1687 and 1636 cm −1 which may indicate an antiparallel β ‐sheet‐like signature. [ 23 ] Gel 4 exhibited a peak at 1700 cm −1 which may be ascribed to the C═O vibrations of the amide group [ 57,58 ] that shifted to 1688 cm −1 in the co‐assembled gels indicating its participation in H‐bonding during co‐assembly. Intriguingly, the antiparallel β ‐sheet‐like signature of Gel 5 remained intact in Gel 1, Gel 2, and Gel 3, demonstrating that Fmoc‐K(Fmoc)‐RGD conferred its secondary structure to the co‐assembled gels.…”

Osteogenic peptides in periodontal ligament stem cell-containing three-dimensional bioscaffolds promote bone healing

“…The components were dissolved in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) under constant stirring at 40 °C. Based on a previous study, 31 hydrogels possess immense potential for mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM) owing to their ability to introduce bioactive factors by simple physical mixing. SDSSD (synthesized by Shanghai Pingyao, China) was added by simple physical mixing to S3G7H5 as the experimental group and S3G7H5 as the control group.…”