Biomimetic Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications

Tissue engineering is an appealing research field that involves the replacement and repair of damaged cells and tissues. Scientists and researchers are facing a great challenge to design and develop suitable scaffold materials with biological activities for the applications in tissue regeneration. Among a variety of natural and synthetic materials, biomimetic self-assembling peptides hold great promises as building blocks for fabricating hydrogel scaffolds with three-dimensional (3D) network structures, which could mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). Furthermore, functionalized self-assembling peptides are easily obtained by introducing multiple bioactive peptide motifs derived from naturally occurring proteins. Over the past two decades, many kinds of biomimetic self-assembling peptides have been designed and developed, and these formed peptide hydrogel scaffolds show great potential applications in tissue engineering, such as angiogenesis, bone, cartilage, and nerve regeneration. In this chapter, we have endeavored to do a comprehensive review of biomimetic self-assembling peptides that form nanofiber hydrogel scaffolds. In particular, recent advances of biomimetic self-assembling peptide hydrogel for tissue engineering applications are also highlighted.