Self-Healing, Self-Assembled β-Sheet Peptide–Poly(γ-glutamic acid) Hybrid Hydrogels

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b00528
• Publication Date: 2017-05-19T19:25:13Z
• Authors: David E. Clarke; E. Thomas Pashuck; Sergio Bertazzo; Jonathan V. M. We...; Molly M. Stevens
• Keywords: Beta sheet; Self-assembling peptide; Soft materials

Self-assembled biomaterials are an important class of materials that can be injected and formed in situ. However, they often not able to meet the mechanical properties necessary for many biological applications, losing at low strains. We synthesized hybrid hydrogels consisting a poly(γ-glutamic acid) polymer network physically cross-linked via grafted self-assembling β-sheet peptides provide non-covalent cross-linking through assembly, reinforced with backbone improve strain stability. By altering peptide graft density concentration, we tailor over order magnitude range 10–200 kPa, which is region soft tissues. Also, due ability cross-links reassemble, self-heal after being strained failure, most cases recovering all their original storage moduli. Using combination spectroscopic techniques, were probe secondary structure verify presence β-sheets within hydrogels. Since requires less than 15% functionalization its repeating units form hydrogel, it easily modified further incorporate specific epitopes. This self-healing polymer−β-sheet hydrogel tailorable promising platform future tissue-engineering scaffolds biomedical applications.