Abstract

Short peptides or single amino acids are interesting building blocks for hydrogels fabrication, frequently used as extracellular matrix-mimicking scaffolds for cell growth in tissue engineering. The combination of two or more peptide hydrogelators could allow the obtaining of different materials exhibiting new architectures, tunable mechanical properties, high stability and improved biofunctionality. Here we report on the synthesis, formulation and multi-scale characterization of peptidebased mixed hydrogels formed by the low molecular weight Fmoc-FF (N?-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl diphenylalanine) hydrogelator and of the PEG8-(FY)3 hexapeptide, containing three repetitions of Phe-Tyr motif and a PEG moiety at its Nterminus. Mixed hydrogels were also prepared replacing PEG8-(FY)3 with its analogue (FY)3, without the PEG moiety. Rheology analysis confirmed the improved mechanical features of the multicomponent gels prepared at two different ratios (2/1 or 1/1, v/v). However, the presence of the hydrophilic PEG polymeric moiety causes a slowing down of the gel kineticformation (from 42 to 18 minutes) and a decrease of the gel rigidity (G' from 9 to 6 kPa). Preliminary in vitro biocompatibility and cell adhesion assays performed on Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) suggest a potential employ of these multicomponent hydrogels as exogenous scaffold materials for tissue engineering.

Autore Pugliese

• Giannini Cinzia , Sibillano Teresa

Tutti gli autori

• C. Diaferia; M. Ghosh; T. Sibillano; E. Gallo; M. Stornaiuolo; C. Giannini; G. Morelli ; L. Adler-Abramovich; A. Accardo

Titolo volume/Rivista

Soft matter

Anno di pubblicazione

2019

ISSN

1744-6848

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

Non Disponibile

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile