| 초록 |
Stimuli-responsive protein-based biomaterials have been of great interest for biomedical applications because of stimuli-triggered self-assembly, excellent biocompatibility, remarkable mechanical properties, and specific biological functions. In this study, a series of block copolymers composed of thermally-responsive elastin-based polypeptides (EBPs) and ligand-responsive calmodulin (CalM) block were genetically designed, expressed, and purified by inverse transition cycling (ITC). The EBP-CalM-EBP fusion proteins as the ABA type triblock exhibited thermally-triggered gelation in a reversible way, resulting in physically cross-linked hydrogels above the transition temperature under physiological environments. Additionally, physically cross-linked hydrogels of the EBP-CalM-EBP fusion proteins was shown to be responsive to ligands. Potentially, these dynamic hydrogels would be useful as injectable hydrogels for functional tissue engineering. |
