Supramolecular Biopolymers for Tissue Engineering

Figure 3

(a) Mechanism of assembly of aliphatic SAPs. Due to the hydrophobicity gradient in the peptide monomer, the monomers will assemble first in antiparallel pairs. Next, dimers will form intermediate α-helical structures. The nanofiber will be formed when multimers stack into stable β-fibrils. (b) Field emission scanning microscopy (FESEM) of the interconnected nanofiber structures. (c) Field emission scanning microscopy (FESEM) of Caco2 intestinal epithelial cells cultured on an SAP hydrogel. Homogeneous microvilli phenotype can be observed. (d) Topography of trimers and pentamers with different C-terminus residues. The diameter and prevalence of the individual fibers depend on the properties of the changing residue. These figures have been reproduced with permission from the American Chemical Society and Springer Nature [66, 75].

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