Tissue engineering is concerned with the fabrication of materials that can act as substitutes for damaged biological tissues and promote their repair. One key aspect of this process is the presentation of growth factors to damaged tissues in a way that promotes cellular regeneration or differentiation of progenitor cells. We describe affinity-based methods for incorporating growth factors into peptide hydrogels to effect programmable release of proteins from material scaffolds. Using recombinant DNA technology, bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) has been cloned and expressed with several different affinity tags for complexation with a synthetic peptide hydrogel, MAX8. The negative charge of the affinity tag electrostatically interacts with the lysine residues of the highly cationic hydrogel for slow and sustained protein release under physiological conditions. We describe the fabrication of MAX8 hydrogels, BMP-2 production, and release profiles from the newly fabricated materials.

Stimulated release of a protein from a peptide hydrogel

245th National Meeting (2013)

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