Elastic serum-albumin based hydrogels: mechanism of formation and application in cardiac tissue engineering.
Elastic serum-albumin based hydrogels: mechanism of formation and application in cardiac tissue engineering.
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DOI：
10.1039/c8tb01014e
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发表时间：
2018-09-21
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Stevens MM
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文献类型：
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作者：
Amdursky N;Mazo MM;Thomas MR;Humphrey EJ;Puetzer JL;St-Pierre JP;Skaalure SC;Richardson RM;Terracciano CM;Stevens MM
水凝胶是模拟细胞外环境的有前途的材料。在这里，我们提出了一种从丰富且低成本的蛋白质血清白蛋白形成独立式粘弹性水凝胶的简单方法。我们表明，水凝胶的机械性能随着蛋白质组分的重量分数而表现出复杂的行为。我们进一步利用 X 射线散射来阐明从低重量分数的纤维网络形成到较高重量分数的互连聚集体的凝胶化机制。鉴于我们的水凝胶弹性与心肌弹性之间的匹配，我们研究了它在体外支持心肌细胞的潜力。有趣的是，与在玻璃上培养的水凝胶相比，这些水凝胶支持多层肌细胞的形成，并显着促进类天然基因表达谱的维持。当面对多细胞心室细胞制剂时，水凝胶可以支持具有独特细胞排列的宏观收缩的心脏样组织，并形成毫米长的血管样结构。我们设想，我们用丰富的蛋白质形成弹性基质的简单方法使水凝胶成为多种细胞类型的引人注目的生物医学材料候选者。
Hydrogels are promising materials for mimicking the extra-cellular environment. Here, we present a simple methodology for the formation of a free-standing viscoelastic hydrogel from the abundant and low cost protein serum albumin. We show that the mechanical properties of the hydrogel exhibit a complicated behaviour as a function of the weight fraction of the protein component. We further use X-ray scattering to shed light on the mechanism of gelation from the formation of a fibrillary network at low weight fractions to interconnected aggregates at higher weight fractions. Given the match between our hydrogel elasticity and that of the myocardium, we investigated its potential for supporting cardiac cells in vitro. Interestingly, these hydrogels support the formation of several layers of myocytes and significantly promote the maintenance of a native-like gene expression profile compared to those cultured on glass. When confronted with a multicellular ventricular cell preparation, the hydrogels can support macroscopically contracting cardiac-like tissues with a distinct cell arrangement, and form mm-long vascular-like structures. We envisage that our simple approach for the formation of an elastic substrate from an abundant protein makes the hydrogel a compelling biomedical material candidate for a wide range of cell types.