Stimuli-responsive nano-shells for caging living cells

我们开发了制备“笼子细胞”的方法，笼子上覆盖着由刺激响应性聚合物复合体组成的纳米壳，以控制细胞在外部刺激下的功能。在本研究中，由于光刺激具有很高的时空分辨率，因此选择光刺激作为外部刺激，并挑战开发可光裂解的纳米壳。对于细胞涂层材料，通过可光裂解的连接基将生物相容的聚合物自组装成可光降解的水凝胶。在此基础上，优化了可光降解自组装材料包覆细胞表面的方法，成功地实现了细胞的伸长、黏附和吞噬功能受光照射的调控。

We developed methods for preparing "caged cells", which are covered with the nano-shell consisting of stimuli-responsive polymer complexes to control the cellular functions with external stimuli. In this study, light stimulation was selected as the external stimulus because of its high spatio-temporal resolution, and photo-cleavable nano-shells were challenged to be developed. For the cell-coating material, a photo-degradable hydrogel was produced by self-assembly of biocompatible polymers through a photo-cleavable linker group. Then, the method for coating cellular surfaces with the present photo-degradable self-assembly materials was optimized for tightly caging living cells, and the functions of caged cells such as elongation, adhesion and phagocytosis were successfully confirmed to be controlled by light irradiation.