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Published on: December 26, 2019
Delivery of bFGF for Tissue Engineering by Tethering to the ECM
Chawapun Suttinont1, Yasumasa Mashimo1, Masayasu Mie1
1Department of Environmental Chemistry and Engineering, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
Delivery of growth factors to target cells is an important subject in tissue engineering. Towards that end, we have developed a growth factor-tethered extracellular matrix (ECM). Here, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) was tethered to extracellular matrix noncovalently. The designed ECM was comprised of 12 repeats of the APGVGV peptide motif derived from elastin as a stable structural unit and included the well-known cell adhesive RGD peptide as an active functional unit. To bind bFGF to the ECM, an acidic amino acid-rich sequence was introduced at the C-terminus of the ECM protein. It consisted of 5 repeats of 4 aspartic acids and a serine, DDDDS. bFGF has a highly basic amino acid domain. Therefore, bFGF was tethered to the ECM protein by electrostatic interaction. Cells cultured on bFGF-tethered ECM were well attached to the ECM and induced proliferation without addition of soluble bFGF.
