A team of chemists and bioengineers at Rice University and the University of Houston have made a breakthrough in their efforts to produce a biomaterial for growing biological tissues outside the body. Their research has led to the creation of peptide-based hydrogels that imitate the aligned structure of muscle and nerve tissues, potentially paving the way for the development of lab-grown tissue with practical functions. This milestone achievement includes the development of a new fabrication process for producing aligned nanofiber hydrogels, opening up promising opportunities for tissue regeneration following injuries and offering a method for testing potential therapeutic drugs.The group, led by Jeffrey Hartgerink, professor of chemistry and bioengineering, has created peptide-based hydrogels that imitate the structured alignment of muscle and nerve tissues. This alignment is crucial for the functionality of the tissues, but reproducing it in the lab is difficult as it requires lining up individual cells. For more than a decade, the team has been developing multidomain peptides (MDPs) that can self-assemble into nanofibers. These nanofibers resemble the fibrous proteins naturally found in the body, similar to a spiderweb at a nanoscale level. In their most recent research,The researchers found a new way to make aligned MDP nanofiber “noodles,” which was published online and featured on the cover of the journal ACS Nano. They dissolved the peptides in water and then extruded them into a salty solution to create aligned peptide nanofibers, resembling twisted strands of rope smaller than a cell. By increasing the concentration of ions or salt in the solution and repeating the process, they were able to achieve even greater alignment of the nanofibers. The findings show that this method can produce aligned peptide nanofibers that effectively guide cell growth in a desired direction.Adam Farsheed, the lead author who recently earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering from Rice, stated that this development is an important milestone in the creation of functional biological tissues for regenerative medicine purposes.
A key discovery of the study was that when the alignment of the peptide nanofibers was overly strong, the cells did not align properly. It was later found that the cells needed to be able to apply force to the peptide nanofibers in order to recognize the alignment. If the nanofibers were too rigid, the cells were unable to exert this force and were unable to arrange themselves as desired.”This knowledge about the behavior of cells could have wider implications for the development of tissues and biomaterials,” Hartgerink stated. ”Understanding how cells interact with these materials at the nanoscale could lead to more effective methods for constructing tissues.”
Other co-authors of the study from Rice University’s chemistry department include Ph.D. graduates Tracy Yu and Carson Cole, graduate student Joseph Swain, and undergraduate researcher Adam Thomas. In addition, bioengineering undergraduate researcher Jonathan Makhoul, graduate student Eric Garcia Huitron, and Professor K. Jane Grande-Allen were also involved in the research. The team of researchers from tThe University of Houston team includes Ph.D. student Christian Zevallos-Delgado, research assistant Sajede Saeidifard, research assistant professor Manmohan Singh and engineering professor Kirill Larin. The funding for this work was provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01DE021798, R01EY022362, R01HD095520, R01EY030063), the National Science Foundation (2129122), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and the Welch Foundation (C-2141). The authors are solely responsible for the content of this news release and it does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funding organizations.
