Biocompatibility of KLD-12 peptide hydrogel as a scaffold in tissue engineering of intervertebral discs in rabbits

Supramolecular Peptide Nanofiber Hydrogels for Bone Tissue Engineering: From Multihierarchical Fabrications to Comprehensive Applications

Bone tissue engineering is becoming an ideal strategy to replace autologous bone grafts for surgical bone repair, but the multihierarchical complexity of natural bone is still difficult to emulate due to the lack of suitable biomaterials. Supramolecular peptide nanofiber hydrogels (SPNHs) are emerging biomaterials because of their inherent biocompatibility, satisfied biodegradability, high purity, facile functionalization, and tunable mechanical properties. This review initially focuses on the multihierarchical fabrications by SPNHs to emulate natural bony extracellular matrix. Structurally, supramolecular peptides based on distinctive building blocks can assemble into nanofiber hydrogels, which can be used as nanomorphology-mimetic scaffolds for tissue engineering. Biochemically, bioactive motifs and bioactive factors can be covalently tethered or physically absorbed to SPNHs to endow various functions depending on physiological and pharmacological requirements. Mechanically, four strategies are summarized to optimize the biophysical microenvironment of SPNHs for bone regeneration. Furthermore, comprehensive applications about SPNHs for bone tissue engineering are reviewed. The biomaterials can be directly used in the form of injectable hydrogels or composite nanoscaffolds, or they can be used to construct engineered bone grafts by bioprinting or bioreactors. Finally, continuing challenges and outlook are discussed.

Hydrogel Formation with Enzyme-Responsive Cyclic Peptides

Self-assembling peptides (SAPs), which form hydrogels through physical cross-linking of soluble structures, are an intriguing class of materials that have been applied as tissue engineering scaffolds and drug delivery vehicles. For feasible application of these tissue mimetics via minimally invasive delivery, their bulk mechanical properties must be compatible with current delivery strategies. However, injectable SAPs which possess shear-thinning capacity, as well as the ability to reassemble after cessation of shearing can be technically challenging to generate. Many SAPs either clog the high-gauge needle/catheter at high concentration during delivery or are incapable of reassembly following delivery. In this chapter, we provide a detailed protocol for topological control of enzyme-responsive peptide-based hydrogels that enable the user to access both advantages. These materials are formulated as sterically constrained cyclic peptide progelators to temporarily disrupt self-assembly during injection-based delivery, which avoids issues with clogging of needles and catheters as well as nearby vasculature. Proteolytic cleavage by enzymes produced at the target tissue induces progelator linearization and hydrogelation. The scope of this approach is demonstrated by their ability to flow through a catheter without clogging and activated gelation upon exposure to target enzymes.

pH-Responsive Charge-Conversion Progelator Peptides

A simple strategy for generating stimuli-responsive peptide-based hydrogels via charge-conversion of a self-assembling peptide (SAP) is described. These materials are formulated as soluble, polyanionic peptides, containing maleic acid, citraconic acid, or dimethylmaleic acid masking groups on each lysine residue, which do not form assemblies, but instead flow easily through high gauge needles and catheters. Acid-induced mask hydrolysis renews the zwitterionic nature of the peptides with concomitant and rapid self-assembly via β-sheet formation into rehealable hydrogels. The use of different masks enables one to tune pH responsiveness and assembly kinetics. In anticipation of their potential for in vivo hydrogel delivery and use, progelators exhibit hemocompatibility in whole human blood, and their peptide components are shown to be noncytotoxic. Finally, demonstration of stimuli-induced self-assembly for dye sequestration suggests a simple, non-covalent strategy for small molecule encapsulation in a degradable scaffold. In summary, this simple, scalable masking strategy allows for preparation of responsive, dynamic self-assembling biomaterials. This work sets the stage for implementing biodegradable therapeutic hydrogels that assemble in response to physiological, disease-relevant states of acidosis.

Enhanced osteogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells by self-assembled peptide hydrogel functionalized with glutamic acid templated peptides

Self-assembling peptide (SAP) hydrogel has been shown to be an excellent biological material for three-dimensional cell culture and stimulatie cell migration and differentiation into the scaffold, as well as for repairing bone tissue defects. Herein, we designed one of the SAP scaffolds KLD (KLDLKLDLKLDL) through direct coupling to short bioactive motif O1 (EEGGC) and O2 (EEEEE) of which bioactivity on osteogenic differentiation was previously demonstrated and self-assembled in different concentrations (0.5%, 1%, and 2%). Our aim was to enhance osteogenesis and biomineralization of injectable SAP hydrogels with controlled mechanical properties so that the peptide hydrogel also becomes capable of being injected to bone defects. The molecular integration of the nanofibrous peptide scaffolds was observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The rheological properties and degradation profile of SAP hydrogels were evaluated to ensure stability of SAPs. Compared with pure KLD scaffold, we found that these designed bioactive peptide scaffolds significantly promoted hMSCs proliferation depicted by biochemical analysis of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, total calcium deposition. Moreover, key osteogenic markers of ALP activity, collagen type I (COL-1), osteopontin (OP), and osteocalcin (OCN) expression levels determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunofluorescence analysis were also significantly increased with the addition of glutamic acid residues to KLD. We demonstrated that the designed SAP scaffolds promoted the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs. Our results suggest that these designed bioactive peptide scaffolds may be useful for promoting bone tissue regeneration.

Hydrogel formation by short D-peptide for cell-culture scaffolds

The present study reports that a short oligopeptide D-P1, consisting of only five D-amino acids, self-assembled into entangled nanofibers to form a hydrogel that functioned as a scaffold for cell cultures. D-P1 (Ac-D-Phe-D-Phe-D-Phe-Gly-D-Lys) gelated aqueous buffer solution and water at a minimum gelation concentration of 0.5 wt%. The circular dichroism (CD) measurements demonstrated the formation of a β-sheet structure in the self-assembly of D-P1. We investigated the gelation properties and CD spectra of both the D- and L-forms of the oligopeptide, and found only a minimal difference between them. The D-P1 hydrogel was resistant to a protease, whereas the L-P1 hydrogel was rapidly degraded. Both oligopeptides exhibited nontoxic properties to human cancer cells and embryoid bodies (EBs) derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells. Additionally, we succeeded in forming spheroids of HeLa cells on the D-P1 hydrogel, which indicates the potential of this hydrogel for 3-dimensional cell culture.

Recent advances in nanotherapeutic strategies for spinal cord injury repair

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating and complicated condition with no cure available. The initial mechanical trauma is followed by a secondary injury characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration and inhibitory glial scar formation. Due to the limitations posed by the blood-spinal cord barrier, systemic delivery of therapeutics is challenging. Recent development of various nanoscale strategies provides exciting and promising new means of treating SCI by crossing the blood-spinal cord barrier and delivering therapeutics. As such, we discuss different nanomaterial fabrication methods and provide an overview of recent studies where nanomaterials were developed to modulate inflammatory signals, target inhibitory factors in the lesion, and promote axonal regeneration after SCI. We also review emerging areas of research such as optogenetics, immunotherapy and CRISPR-mediated genome editing where nanomaterials can provide synergistic effects in developing novel SCI therapy regimens, as well as current efforts and barriers to clinical translation of nanomaterials.

Enzyme-responsive progelator cyclic peptides for minimally invasive delivery to the heart post-myocardial infarction

Injectable biopolymer hydrogels have gained attention for use as scaffolds to promote cardiac function and prevent negative left ventricular (LV) remodeling post-myocardial infarction (MI). However, most hydrogels tested in preclinical studies are not candidates for minimally invasive catheter delivery due to excess material viscosity, rapid gelation times, and/or concerns regarding hemocompatibility and potential for embolism. We describe a platform technology for progelator materials formulated as sterically constrained cyclic peptides which flow freely for low resistance injection, and rapidly assemble into hydrogels when linearized by disease-associated enzymes. Their utility in vivo is demonstrated by their ability to flow through a syringe and gel at the site of MI in rat models. Additionally, synthetic functionalization enables these materials to flow through a cardiac injection catheter without clogging, without compromising hemocompatibility or cytotoxicity. These studies set the stage for the development of structurally dynamic biomaterials for therapeutic hydrogel delivery to the MI.

Short Oligopeptides for Biocompatible and Biodegradable Supramolecular Hydrogels

Short Phe-rich oligopeptides, consisting of only four and five amino acids, worked as effective supramolecular hydrogelators for buffer solutions at low gelator concentrations (0.5-1.5 wt %). Among 10 different oligopeptides synthesized, peptide P1 (Ac-Phe-Phe-Phe-Gly-Lys) showed high gelation ability. Transmission electron microscopy observations suggested that the peptide molecules self-assembled into nanofibrous networks, which turned into gels. The hydrogel of peptide P1 showed reversible thermal gel-sol transition and viscoelastic properties typical of a gel. Circular dichroism spectra revealed that peptide P1 formed a β-sheetlike structure, which decreased with increasing temperature. The self-assembly of peptide P1 occurred even in the presence of nutrients in culture media and common surfactants. Escherichia coli and yeast successfully grew on the hydrogel. The hydrogel exhibited low cytotoxicity to animal cells. Finally, we demonstrated that functional compounds can be released from the hydrogel in different manners based on the interaction between the compounds and the hydrogel.

Branched peptides integrate into self-assembled nanostructures and enhance biomechanics of peptidic hydrogels

Self-assembling peptides (SAP) have drawn an increasing interest in the tissue engineering community. They display unquestionable biomimetic properties, tailorability and promising biocompatibility. However their use has been hampered by poor mechanical properties making them fragile soft scaffolds. To increase SAP hydrogel stiffness we introduced a novel strategy based on multiple ramifications of (LDLK)₃, a well-known linear SAP, connected with one or multiple "lysine knots". Differently branched SAPs were tested by increasing the number of (LDLK)₃-like branches and by adding the neuro-regenerative functional motif BMHP1 as a single branch. While pure branched peptides did not have appealing self-assembling propensity, when mixed with the corresponding linear SAP they increased the stiffness of the overall hydrogel of multiple times. Notably, optimal results (or peak) were obtained 1) at similar molar ratio (between linear and branched peptides) for all tested sequences and 2) for the branched SAPs featuring the highest number of branches made of (LDLK)₃. The functional motif BMHP1, as expected, seemed not to contribute to the increase of the storage modulus as efficiently as (LDLK)₃. Interestingly, branched SAPs improved the β-sheet self-arrangement of (LDLK)₃ and allowed for the formation of assembled nanofibers. Indeed in coarse-grained molecular dynamics we showed they readily integrate in the assembled aggregates providing "molecular connections" among otherwise weakly paired β-structures. Lastly, branched SAPs did not affect the usual response of human neural stem cells cultured on (LDLK)₃-like scaffolds in vitro. Hence, branched SAPs may be a valuable new tool to enhance mechanical properties of self-assembling peptide biomaterials harmlessly; as neither chemical nor enzymatic cross-linking reactions are involved. As a consequence, branched SAPs may enlarge the field of application of SAPs in tissue engineering and beyond.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Self-assembling peptides stand at the forefront of regenerative medicine because they feature biomimetic nano-architectures that mimic the complexity of natural peptide-based extracellular matrices of living tissues. Their superior biocompatibility and ease of scale-up production are hampered by weak mechanical properties due to transient non-covalent interactions among and within the self-assembled peptide chains, thus limiting their potential applications. We introduced new branched self-assembling peptides to be used as "molecular connectors" among self-assembled nanostructures made of linear SAPs. Branched SAPs could be mixed with linear SAPs before self-assembling in order to have them intermingled with different β-sheets of linear SAPs after gelation. This strategy caused a manifold increase of the stiffness of the assembled hydrogels (proportional to the number of self-assembling branches), did not affect SAP propensity to form β-sheet but, instead, further stimulated their secondary structure rearrangements. It is now possible to modularly improve SAP scaffold mechanical properties without using harmful chemical reactions. Therefore, branched SAPs represent an additional tool to be adopted for efficient and harmless SAP scaffold customization in tissue engineering.

Supramolecular Hydrogelators and Hydrogels: From Soft Matter to Molecular Biomaterials

In this review we intend to provide a relatively comprehensive summary of the work of supramolecular hydrogelators after 2004 and to put emphasis particularly on the applications of supramolecular hydrogels/hydrogelators as molecular biomaterials. After a brief introduction of methods for generating supramolecular hydrogels, we discuss supramolecular hydrogelators on the basis of their categories, such as small organic molecules, coordination complexes, peptides, nucleobases, and saccharides. Following molecular design, we focus on various potential applications of supramolecular hydrogels as molecular biomaterials, classified by their applications in cell cultures, tissue engineering, cell behavior, imaging, and unique applications of hydrogelators. Particularly, we discuss the applications of supramolecular hydrogelators after they form supramolecular assemblies but prior to reaching the critical gelation concentration because this subject is less explored but may hold equally great promise for helping address fundamental questions about the mechanisms or the consequences of the self-assembly of molecules, including low molecular weight ones. Finally, we provide a perspective on supramolecular hydrogelators. We hope that this review will serve as an updated introduction and reference for researchers who are interested in exploring supramolecular hydrogelators as molecular biomaterials for addressing the societal needs at various frontiers.

Self-assembling peptide nanofibers coupled with neuropeptide substance P for bone tissue engineering

The number of patients requiring flat bone transplantation continues to increase worldwide. Cell transplantation has been successfully applied clinically; however, it causes another defect site and the time requirements to harvest cells and expand them are considerable. In this study, KLD12/KLD12-SP (KLD12+KLD12-substance P [SP]) was designed to mimic endogenous tissue-healing processes. The structures of KLD12, KLD12-SP, and KLD12/KLD12-SP were observed by transmission electron microscopy and circular dichroism spectra. KLD12/KLD12-SP nanofibers (5-10 nm) were created under physiological conditions by formation of a β-sheet structure. The ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to recruit KLD12/KLD12-SP was observed by using an in vivo fluorescence imaging system. Labeled human bone marrow stromal cells supplied via an intravenous injection were recruited to the scaffold containing KLD12/KLD12-SP. Polylactic acid/beta-tricalcium phosphate (PLA/β-TCP) scaffolds filled with KLD12/KLD12-SP were applied to repair calvarial defects. The composite constructs (groups: defect, PLA/β-TCP, PLA/β-TCP/KLD12, and PLA/β-TCP/KLD12/KLD12-SP) were implanted into rat defect sites. Bone tissue regeneration was evaluated by observing gross morphology by hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome staining at 12 and 24 weeks after surgery. Gross morphology showed that the defect site was filled with new tissue that was integrated with host tissue in the KLD12/KLD12-SP group. In addition, from the staining data, cells were recruited to the defect site and lacunae structures formed in the KLD12/KLD12-SP group. From these results, the PLA/β-TCP+KLD12/KLD12-SP composite construct was considered for enhancement of bone tissue regeneration without cell transplantation.

New bioactive motifs and their use in functionalized self-assembling peptides for NSC differentiation and neural tissue engineering

Developing functionalized biomaterials for enhancing transplanted cell engraftment in vivo and stimulating the regeneration of injured tissues requires a multi-disciplinary approach customized for the tissue to be regenerated. In particular, nervous tissue engineering may take a great advantage from the discovery of novel functional motifs fostering transplanted stem cell engraftment and nervous fiber regeneration. Using phage display technology we have discovered new peptide sequences that bind to murine neural stem cell (NSC)-derived neural precursor cells (NPCs), and promote their viability and differentiation in vitro when linked to LDLK12 self-assembling peptide (SAPeptide). We characterized the newly functionalized LDLK12 SAPeptides via atomic force microscopy, circular dichroism and rheology, obtaining nanostructured hydrogels that support human and murine NSC proliferation and differentiation in vitro. One functionalized SAPeptide (Ac-FAQ), showing the highest stem cell viability and neural differentiation in vitro, was finally tested in acute contusive spinal cord injury in rats, where it fostered nervous tissue regrowth and improved locomotor recovery. Interestingly, animals treated with the non-functionalized LDLK12 had an axon sprouting/regeneration intermediate between Ac-FAQ-treated animals and controls. These results suggest that hydrogels functionalized with phage-derived peptides may constitute promising biomimetic scaffolds for in vitro NSC differentiation, as well as regenerative therapy of the injured nervous system. Moreover, this multi-disciplinary approach can be used to customize SAPeptides for other specific tissue engineering applications.

Genipin-crosslinked fibrin hydrogels as a potential adhesive to augment intervertebral disc annulus repair

Treatment of damaged intervertebral discs is a significant clinical problem and, despite advances in the repair and replacement of the nucleus pulposus, there are few effective strategies to restore defects in the annulus fibrosus. An annular repair material should meet three specifications: have a modulus similar to the native annulus tissue, support the growth of disc cells, and maintain adhesion to tissue under physiological strain levels. We hypothesized that a genipin crosslinked fibrin gel could meet these requirements. Our mechanical results showed that genipin crosslinked fibrin gels could be created with a modulus in the range of native annular tissue. We also demonstrated that this material is compatible with the in vitro growth of human disc cells, when genipin:fibrin ratios were 0.25:1 or less, although cell proliferation was slower and cell morphology more rounded than for fibrin alone. Finally, lap tests were performed to evaluate adhesion between fibrin gels and pieces of annular tissue. Specimens created without genipin had poor handling properties and readily delaminated, while genipin crosslinked fibrin gels remained adhered to the tissue pieces at strains exceeding physiological levels and failed at 15-30%. This study demonstrated that genipin crosslinked fibrin gels show promise as a gap-filling adhesive biomaterial with tunable material properties, yet the slow cell proliferation suggests this biomaterial may be best suited as a sealant for small annulus fibrosus defects or as an adhesive to augment large annulus repairs. Future studies will evaluate degradation rate, fatigue behaviors, and long-term biocompatibility.