Journal
ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
Volume 7, Issue 2, Pages 408-414Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.0c01488
Keywords
optogenetics; dynamic ECM; collagen functionalization; click chemistry; ECM-mimetic substrate
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Funding
- California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI) - University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Office of the President
- MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation [DMR 1720256]
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The study introduces a light-responsive ECM mimic hydrogel that can change its stiffness and softness through light control, with potential applications in mechanical input regulation and bio-interfacing prosthetics.
The extracellular matrix (ECM) comprises a meshwork of biomacromolecules whose composition, architecture, and macroscopic properties, such as mechanics, instruct cell fate decisions during development and disease progression. Current methods implemented in mechanotransduction studies either fail to capture real-time mechanical dynamics or utilize synthetic polymers that lack the fibrillar nature of their natural counterparts. Here we present an optogenetic-inspired tool to construct light-responsive ECM mimetic hydrogels comprised exclusively of natural ECM proteins. Optogenetic tools offer seconds temporal resolution and submicron spatial resolution, permitting researchers to probe cell signaling dynamics with unprecedented precision. Here we demonstrated our approach of using SNAP-tag and its thiol-targeted substrate, benzylguanine-maleimide, to covalently attach blue-light-responsive proteins to collagen hydrogels. The resulting material (OptoGel), in addition to encompassing the native biological activity of collagen, stiffens upon exposure to blue light and softens in the dark. Optogels have immediate use in dissecting the cellular response to acute mechanical inputs and may also have applications in next-generation biointerfacing prosthetics.
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