A Strategy to Enhance Secretion of Extracellular Matrix Components by Stem Cells: Relevance to Tissue Engineering.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

The ability of cells to secrete extracellular matrix proteins is an important property in the repair, replacement, and regeneration of living tissue. Cells that populate tissue-engineered constructs need to be able to emulate these functions. The motifs, KTTKS or palmitoyl-KTTKS (peptide amphiphile), have been shown to stimulate production of collagen and fibronectin in differentiated cells. Molecular modeling was used to design different forms of active peptide motifs to enhance the efficacy of peptides to increase collagen and fibronectin production using terminals KTTKS/SKTTK/SKTTKS connected by various hydrophobic linkers, V 4 A 3 /V 4 A 2 /A 4 G 3 . Molecular dynamic simulations showed SKTTKS-V 4 A 3 -SKTTKS (P3), with palindromic (SKTTKS) motifs and SKTTK-V 4 A 2 -KTTKS (P5), maintained structural integrity and favorable surface electrostatic distributions that are required for functionality. In vitro studies showed that peptides, P3 and P5, showed low toxicity to human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) and significantly increased the production of collagen and fibronectin in a concentration-dependent manner compared with the original active peptide motif. The 4-day treatment showed that stem cell markers of hADSCs remained stable with P3. The molecular design of novel peptides is a promising strategy for the development of intelligent biomaterials to guide stem cell fu

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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