The ability of skeletal muscle to self-repair after a traumatic injury, tumor ablation, or muscular disease is slow and limited, and the capacity of skeletal muscle to self-regenerate declines steeply with age. Tissue engineering of functional skeletal muscle using 3D bioprinting technology is promising for creating tissue constructs that repair and promote regeneration of damaged tissue. Hydrogel scaffolds used as biomaterials for skeletal muscle tissue engineering can provide chemical, physical and mechanical cues to the cells in three dimensions thus promoting regeneration. Herein, we have developed two synthetically designed novel tetramer peptide biomaterials. These peptides are self-assembling into a nanofibrous 3D network, entrapping 99.9% water and mimicking the native collagen of an extracellular matrix. Different biocompatibility assays including MTT, 3D cell viability assay, cytotoxicity assay and live-dead assay confirm the biocompatibility of these peptide hydrogels for mouse myoblast cells (C2C12). Immunofluorescence analysis of cell-laden hydrogels revealed that the proliferation of C2C12 cells was well-aligned in the peptide hydrogels compared to the alginate-gelatin control. These results indicate that these peptide hydrogels are suitable for skeletal muscle tissue engineering. Finally, we tested the printability of the peptide bioinks using a commercially available 3D bioprinter. The ability to print these hydrogels will enable future development of 3D bioprinted scaffolds containing skeletal muscle myoblasts for tissue engineering applications.
Composite membranes with a thin cellulose layer with outstanding flux and selectivity for water vapour are achieved via coating with trimethylsilyl cellulose.
Toroidal structures based on self-assembly of predesigned building blocks are well-established in the literature, but spontaneous self-organization to prepare such structures has not been reported to date. Here, organic-inorganic hybrid microtoroids synthesized by simultaneous coordination-driven assembly of amphiphilic molecules and hydrophilic polymers are reported. Mixing amphiphilic molecules with iron(III) chloride and hydrophilic polymers in water leads, within minutes, to the formation of starlike nanostructures. A spontaneous self-organization of these nanostructures is then triggered to form stable hybrid microtoroids. Interestingly, the toroids exhibit anisotropic hierarchical growth, giving rise to a layered toroidal framework. These microstructures are mechanically robust and can act as templates to host metallic nanoparticles such as gold and silver. Understanding the nature of spontaneous assembly driven by coordination multiple non-covalent interactions can help explain the well-ordered complexity of many biological organisms in addition to expanding the available tools to mimic such structures at a molecular level.
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