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Controlling the balance of endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in blood vessels is critically important to minimize the risk associated with vascular implants. Extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a key role in controlling the cellular balance, suggesting a promising source of cell-selective peptides. To obtain EC- or SMC-selective peptides, we start by highlighting sequence differences found among ECM molecules as enriched targets for cell-selective peptides. We explored the EC- or SMC-selective performance of tripeptides that are specifically enriched only in collagen type IV, but not in types I, II, III, and V. Collagen type IV was chosen since it is the major ECM in the basement membrane of blood vessels, which separates ECs and SMCs. Among 114 collagen type IV-derived tripeptides pre-screened from in silico analysis, 22 peptides (19%) were found to promote cell-selective adhesion, as determined by peptide array. One of the best performing EC-selective peptides (Cys-Ala-Gly (CAG)) was mixed into an electrospun fine-fiber, a vascular graft material, for practical application. Compared to unmodified fiber, the CAG containing fiber surface was found to enhance adhesion of ECs (+190%) while limiting SMCs (-20%). These results are not only consistent with the hypothesis of ECM as a source of cell selective peptides, but also suggest a new genre of EC- or SMC-selective peptides for tissue engineering applications. Collectively, these findings favorably support the screening approach used to discover new peptides for these purposes.

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The mechanochemical surface functionalization of iron oxides with disordered lattices on bare iron (Fe) particles was investigated using simple milling processes to clarify the formation mechanism of the oxide layer and investigate the near-surface models with different states. The homogeneous α-Fe particles at the milling equilibrium were first prepared under an argon atmosphere. After the subsequent milling reaction of the particles with oxygen molecules, the surface analyses by X-ray diffraction and Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies revealed that the near-surface layers consisted of two iron oxide phases (α-Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 ) through oxygen atom diffusion, and the α-Fe 2 O 3 was dominantly grown on the near surface. During the initial reaction, the signals from an electron spin resonance suggested the dangling bond formation on α-Fe 2 O 3 . The oxygen atoms effectively induce disordered lattices in the local area to form oxidized Fe 3+ clusters, and the geometric distortion formed the dangling bonds, which were theoretically supported by a molecular orbital calculation to elucidate the increase in the unpaired electron sites on the α-Fe 2 O 3 . Therefore, the defective Fe 3+ ions induced by the lattice mismatching between the clusters and bare α-Fe are found to form the disordered lattice that contains the oxygen atoms with unpaired electrons, which are successfully induced by the near-surface strain based on the simple mechanochemical reactions. The patterns of surface activation of the Fe particle surfaces by oxidization will be capable of novel chemical reactions by selective oxygen insertion as well as deep oxidation.