TY - JOUR
T1 - Luciferin-Bioinspired Click Ligation Enables Hydrogel Platforms with Fine-Tunable Properties for 3D Cell Culture
AU - Jin, Minye
AU - Koçer, Gülistan
AU - Paez, Julieta I.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, project no. 422041745) awarded to J.I.P. and from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Postdoctoral Fellowship) awarded to G.K. The authors thank Josef Zapp (Saarland University) for help with NMR measurements, Prof. Markus Gallei (Saarland University) for GPC measurements, and Claudia Fink-Straube and Ha Rimbach-Nguyen (INM) for mass spectrometry measurements.
Publisher Copyright:
©
PY - 2022/2/2
Y1 - 2022/2/2
N2 - There is an increasing interest in coupling reactions for cross-linking of cell-encapsulating hydrogels under biocompatible, chemoselective, and tunable conditions. Inspired by the biosynthesis of luciferins in fireflies, here we exploit the cyanobenzothiazole-cysteine (CBT-Cys) click ligation to develop polyethylene glycol hydrogels as tunable scaffolds for cell encapsulation. Taking advantage of the chemoselectivity and versatility of CBT-Cys ligation, a highly flexible gel platform is reported here. We demonstrate luciferin-inspired hydrogels with important advantages for cell encapsulation applications: (i) gel precursors derived from inexpensive reagents and with good stability in aqueous solution (>4 weeks), (ii) adjustable gel mechanics within physiological ranges (E = 180-6240 Pa), (iii) easy tunability of the gelation rate (seconds to minutes) by external means, (iv) high microscale homogeneity, (v) good cytocompatibility, and (iv) regulable biological properties. These flexible and robust CBT-Cys hydrogels are proved as supportive matrices for 3D culture of different cell types, namely, fibroblasts and human mesenchymal stem cells. Our findings expand the toolkit of click chemistries for the fabrication of tunable biomaterials.
AB - There is an increasing interest in coupling reactions for cross-linking of cell-encapsulating hydrogels under biocompatible, chemoselective, and tunable conditions. Inspired by the biosynthesis of luciferins in fireflies, here we exploit the cyanobenzothiazole-cysteine (CBT-Cys) click ligation to develop polyethylene glycol hydrogels as tunable scaffolds for cell encapsulation. Taking advantage of the chemoselectivity and versatility of CBT-Cys ligation, a highly flexible gel platform is reported here. We demonstrate luciferin-inspired hydrogels with important advantages for cell encapsulation applications: (i) gel precursors derived from inexpensive reagents and with good stability in aqueous solution (>4 weeks), (ii) adjustable gel mechanics within physiological ranges (E = 180-6240 Pa), (iii) easy tunability of the gelation rate (seconds to minutes) by external means, (iv) high microscale homogeneity, (v) good cytocompatibility, and (iv) regulable biological properties. These flexible and robust CBT-Cys hydrogels are proved as supportive matrices for 3D culture of different cell types, namely, fibroblasts and human mesenchymal stem cells. Our findings expand the toolkit of click chemistries for the fabrication of tunable biomaterials.
KW - 3D cell encapsulation
KW - bioactivity
KW - bioinspired materials
KW - cyanobenzothiazole-cysteine click ligation
KW - hydrogels
KW - luciferin adduct
KW - tunable gelation rate
KW - n/a OA procedure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123913166&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.1c22186
DO - 10.1021/acsami.1c22186
M3 - Article
C2 - 35060712
AN - SCOPUS:85123913166
VL - 14
SP - 5017
EP - 5032
JO - ACS applied materials & interfaces
JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces
SN - 1944-8244
IS - 4
ER -