Artificial collagen gels via self-assembly of de novo designed peptides.
Development of artificial collagens to replace the animal-derived collagens presents a challenge in the formation of safer and functional biomaterials. We report here the development of collagen-like gels by means of the self-assembly of chemically synthesized peptides. The peptides are disulfide-linked trimers of collagenous Gly-X-Y triplet repeats with self-complementary shapes. Upon cooling the peptide solutions, hydrogels of peptide supramolecules are formed by spontaneous intermolecular triple helix formation. The thermal gel-sol transition appeared to be reversible, and the transition temperatures were found to be tunable by the design of the peptides. Our systems for the formation of artificial collagen-like gels will offer possibilities for novel types of biomaterials.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan.
Chisato M
CM
Yamazaki
Shinichi
S
Asada
Kouki
K
Kitagawa
Takaki
T
Koide
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003094:Collagen / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D004355:Drug Stability; D005782:Gels; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
D005782:Gels; D009842:Oligopeptides; D010455:Peptides; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; D003094:Collagen