Designer Functionalized Self-Assembling Peptide Scaffolds for Adhesion, Proliferation, and Differentiation of MC3T3-E1

Abstract

Induction of some specific cell signaling molecules in peptide scaffold play a critical role in developing of functional substitutes for damaged tissue. In this study, a new peptide ELK8 (Ac-LELELKLK-CONH2) was designed by replacing Ala in EAK16 (Ac-AEAEAKAKAEAEAKAK-CONH2) with more hydrophobic residue Leu in order to enhance the strength of peptide. The functionalized peptides were obtained through directly coupling three functional motifs to C-terminal of ELK8, such as osteogenic growth peptide, osteopontin cell adhesion motif, and 2-unit RGD binding sequence. Then, the new self-assembling peptide scaffolds were fabricated by mixing three functionalized peptides severally with pure ELK8 at the ratio of 1:1 (v:v) and the nanostructures of self-assembling peptides were investigated with AFM and DLS. The osteogenic efficacy of designed peptides on mouse pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 were examined after cells were incubated in scaffolds for 14 d. The results showed that these functionalized peptides, ALK mix particularly, promoted the attachment, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells by increasing in cell numbers, ALP activities and osteocalcin concentrations.

Keywords:

• Designer self-assembling peptide
• MC3T3-E1 cells
• Osteogenic differentiation
• Tissue engineering

Acknowledgments

This article was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, No. 2012CB619101) and Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (No. 2010JM2021). We gratefully acknowledge Ying Li, Advanced Material Analysis and Testing Center, Xi'an University of Technology, and Zhouqi Yang, School of Life Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, for their technical help and advices in some aspects of the work.