title: Amino Acids and Peptide-Based Supramolecular Hydrogels for Three-Dimensional Cell Culture.
abstract: Supramolecular hydrogels assembled from amino acids and peptide-derived hydrogelators have shown great potential as biomimetic three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrices because of their merits over conventional polymeric hydrogels, such as non-covalent or physical interactions, controllable self-assembly, and biocompatibility. These merits enable hydrogels to be made not only by using external stimuli, but also under physiological conditions by rationally designing gelator structures, as well as in situ encapsulation of cells into hydrogels for 3D culture. This review will assess current progress in the preparation of amino acids and peptide-based hydrogels under various kinds of external stimuli, and in situ encapsulation of cells into the hydrogels, with a focus on understanding the associations between their structures, properties, and functions during cell culture, and the remaining challenges in this field. The amino acids and peptide-based hydrogelators with rationally designed structures have promising applications in the fields of regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and pre-clinical evaluation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 800 Dongchuan Road., 200240, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Qiu
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 800 Dongchuan Road., 200240, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Chuan-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D020100:Hydrogels; D010455:Peptides
keywords: amino acids; cell culture; peptides; supramolecular hydrogels