Hydrogels from the Assembly of SAA/Elastin-Inspired Peptides Reveal Non-Canonical Nanotopologies |
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| Authors: | Alessandra Scelsi Brigida Bochicchio Andrew M. Smith Antonio Laezza Alberto Saiani Antonietta Pepe |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Laboratory of Bioinspired Materials (LABIM), Department of Science, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy;2.Department of Materials, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK |
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| Abstract: | Peptide-based hydrogels are of great interest in the biomedical field according to their biocompatibility, simple structure and tunable properties via sequence modification. In recent years, multicomponent assembly of peptides have expanded the possibilities to produce more versatile hydrogels, by blending gelating peptides with different type of peptides to add new features. In the present study, the assembly of gelating P5 peptide SFFSF blended with P21 peptide, SFFSFGVPGVGVPGVGSFFSF, an elastin-inspired peptides or, alternatively, with FF dipeptide, was investigated by oscillatory rheology and different microscopy techniques in order to shed light on the nanotopologies formed by the self-assembled peptide mixtures. Our data show that, depending on the added peptides, cooperative or disruptive assembly can be observed giving rise to distinct nanotopologies to which correspond different mechanical properties that could be exploited to fabricate materials with desired properties. |
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| Keywords: | self-assembling peptides oscillatory rheology atomic force microscopy nanotopology |
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