Protein peptide hydrogels

摘要

The present invention broadly provides novel peptides that can be used to form hydrogels. The peptides are short (preferably 30 amino acid residues or less) and include hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments joined by a turning segment. The hydrogels are formed by altering the pH of a solution of these peptides to an acidic level, or by introducing a source of ions into a solution of these peptides. The resulting hydrogels are shear thinning gels that have high storage moduli and high rates of recovery after destruction. They find use in medical applications, including tissue engineering.

主权项

1. A gel comprising an amphiphilic peptide comprising a hydrophobic terminal region, a turning region, and a hydrophilic terminal region, said turning region being between said hydrophobic and hydrophilic terminal regions, wherein: said hydrophobic region comprises, in any order, amino acid residues of FLIVI (SEQ ID NO:4);
said hydrophilic region is selected from the group consisting of: [GPGXD]n (SEQ ID NO: 15), where n is from 1 to 10, and each X is G or A; GPGX1DGX2X1X1D (SEQ ID NO: 14), where each X1 is individually selected from the group consisting of A, G, V, I, and L, and X2 is selected from the group consisting of P, A, G, V, I, and L; and GPGXD (SEQ ID NO: 16), where X is selected from the group consisting of A, G, V, I, and L; and said turning region is selected from the group consisting of: G, GG, GGG, GGGG (SEQ ID NO: 17), GSXX (SEQ ID NO: 18), XGSX (SEQ ID NO:19), XXGS (SEQ ID NO:20), SGXX (SEQ ID NO:21), XSGX (SEQ ID NO:22), XXSG (SEQ ID NO:23), GXSX (SEQ ID NO:24), XGXS (SEQ ID NO:25), SXGX (SEQ ID NO:26), XSXG (SEQ ID NO:27), GXXS (SEQ ID NO:28), SXXG (SEQ ID NO:29), where each X is individually selected from the group consisting of G, I, V, A, and L, and each S could be replaced by T.