Multilayered Short Peptide-Alginate Blends as New Materials for Potential Applications in Cartilage Tissue Regeneration

Peptide based nanomaterials have been gaining increased prominence due to their ability to form permeable scaffolds that promote growth and regeneration of new tissue. In this work for the first time a short hexapeptide motif VQIVYK, derived from the Tau protein family was conjugated with an organic polyamine linker, putrescine and utilized as a template for developing new materials for cartilage tissue regeneration. Our results showed that the conjugate formed extensive nanofibrous assemblies upon self-assembly under aqueous conditions. We then employed the layer-by-layer (LBL) approach to design the scaffold by first incorporating a short segment of the dentin sialophosphoprotein motif GDASYNSDESK followed by integration with the peptide sequence GSGAGAGSGAGAGSGAGA. This sequence mimics Ala, Gly, Ser repeats seen in the spider silk protein. We then incorporated the polysaccharide alginate which served as a hydrogel. To further enhance binding interactions with chondrocytes, and promote the formation of cartilage in vitro, the bionanocomposites were then attached to the chondrocyte binding peptide sequence HDSQLEALIKFM. The thermal properties as well as biodegradability of the scaffold was examined. To confirm biocompatibility, we examined cell viability, attachment and morphology in the presence of bovine chondrocytes. The cells were found to efficiently adhere to the scaffolds which formed an intricate mesh mimicking the extracellular matrix of cartilage tissue. To evaluate if differentiation occurred in the presence of the scaffolds, we examined in vitro deposition of proteoglycans. Thus, we have developed a new family of nanoscale scaffolds that may be utilized for cartilage tissue regeneration.