含DOPA多肽双响应水凝胶体系的构建及在细胞培养中的应用

肽水凝胶材料在生物领域展现出良好的应用前景，但存在机械性能差、构筑调控方式单一等问题。多巴（DOPA）广泛存在于海虹的粘附蛋白中，具有良好的生物相容性和多重响应性。本项目拟将DOPA残基引入多肽分子，利用其配位作用、氧化作用和酶响应性与氨基酸残基的pH响应性结合，构建双响应体系，协同调控水凝胶的机械性能。研究将系统考察调控前后组装体形貌和溶液性质，特别是凝胶强度的变化。将构筑的水凝胶作为支架材料用于细胞的二维和三维培养，考察其机械性能对细胞生长和分化的影响，并评价其免疫反应。项目的开展可为多肽自组装研究提供新基元，将发展构筑机械性能良好的肽水凝胶材料的新方法，促进其在生物领域的应用。

Although peptide hydrogels have shown great potential in different biological fields, several problems still exist, such as the weak mechanical properties and the single regulation methods. DOPA constitutes a major part of the mussel attachment plaque proteins was found to have multi-response to external conditions, including its very strong metal coordination capability, oxidation, and also enzymatic reactions. In this proposal, we will design short peptide amphiphiles with multi-responsive DOPA moieties and take its multi-responsive property of DOPA to construct bi-responsive system by combining the pH-responsive property of amino acids. The effects of different bi-responsive conditions on the aggregates morphologies and the properties of the solution especially the mechanical properties of the hydrogel will be investigated thoroughly. Then, the hydrogel will be used as scaffolds for 2D and 3D cell culture, the effects of the mechanical strength on the cell growth and differentiation will be investigated thoroughly. Finally, the non-specific immunogenic responses induced by these gels will be evaluated. We expect that such investigations can provide new self-assembling units for peptide self-assembly and develop simple and effective methods for the preparation of hydrogels with great mechanical strength, which can lay a foundation for their application in biological fields.