Multilayered Short Peptide-Alginate Blends as New Materials for Potential Applications in Cartilage Tissue Regeneration.

Peptide based nanomaterials have been gaining increased prominence due to their ability to form permeable scaffolds that promote growth and regeneration of new tissue. In this work for the first time a short hexapeptide motif VQIVYK, derived from the Tau protein family was conjugated with an organic polyamine linker, putrescine and utilized as a template for developing new materials for cartilage tissue regeneration. Our results showed that the conjugate formed extensive nanofibrous assemblies upon self-assembly under aqueous conditions. We then employed the layer-by-layer (LBL) approach to design the scaffold by first incorporating a short segment of the dentin sialophosphoprotein motif GDASYNSDESK followed by integration with the peptide sequence GSGAGAGSGAGAGSGAGA. This sequence mimics Ala, Gly, Ser repeats seen in the spider silk protein. We then incorporated the polysaccharide alginate which served as a hydrogel. To further enhance binding interactions with chondrocytes, and promote the formation of cartilage in vitro, the bionanocomposites were then attached to the chondrocyte binding peptide sequence HDSQLEALIKFM. The thermal properties as well as biodegradability of the scaffold was examined. To confirm biocompatibility, we examined cell viability, attachment and morphology in the presence of bovine chondrocytes. The cells were found to efficiently adhere to the scaffolds which formed an intricate mesh mimicking the extracellular matrix of cartilage tissue. To evaluate if differentiation occurred in the presence of the scaffolds, we examined in vitro deposition of proteoglycans. Thus, we have developed a new family of nanoscale scaffolds that may be utilized for cartilage tissue regeneration.

Layer-by-layer assembly of peptide based bioorganic-inorganic hybrid scaffolds and their interactions with osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells.

In this work we have developed a new family of biocomposite scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration by utilizing self-assembled fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl protected Valyl-cetylamide (FVC) nanoassemblies as templates. To tailor the assemblies for enhanced osteoblast attachment and proliferation, we incorporated (a) Type I collagen, (b) a hydroxyapatite binding peptide sequence (EDPHNEVDGDK) derived from dentin sialophosphoprotein and (c) the osteoinductive bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) to the templates by layer-by-layer assembly. The assemblies were then incubated with hydroxyapatite nanocrystals blended with varying mass percentages of TiO2 nanoparticles and coated with alginate to form three dimensional scaffolds for potential applications in bone tissue regeneration. The morphology was examined by TEM and SEM and the binding interactions were probed by FITR spectroscopy. The scaffolds were found to be non-cytotoxic, adhered to mouse preosteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells and promoted osteogenic differentiation as indicated by the results obtained by alkaline phosphatase assay. Furthermore, they were found to be biodegradable and possessed inherent antibacterial capability. Thus, we have developed a new family of tissue-engineered biocomposite scaffolds with potential applications in bone regeneration.