Tissue Regeneration Through Self-Assembled Peptide Amphiphile Nanofibers

In the present study, we hypothesized that a novel approach to promote vascularrization would be to create injectable three dimensional (3-d) scaffolds within growth factor that enhance the sustained release of growth factor and induce the angiogenesis. we demonstrate that a 3-d scaffold can be formed by mixing of peptide-amphiphile (pa) aqueous solution with hepatocyte growth factor (hgf) solution. pa was synthesized by standard solid phase chemistry that ends with the alkylation of the nh2 terminus of the peptide. the sequence of arginine-glycineaspartic acid (rgd) was included in peptide design as well. a 3-d network of nanofibers was formed by mixing hgf suspensions with dilute aqueous solution of pa. scanning electron microscopy (sem) observation revealed the formation of fibrous assemblies with an extremely high aspect ratio and high surface areas with mean diameter less than 200 nm. in vitro release profile of hgf from three 3-d of nanofibers was investigated while angiogenesis induced by the released hgf was assessed. in vivo potential ability of pa nanofibers to induce angiogenesis was assessed through subcutaneous injection of pa solution, hgf solution, and pa together with hgf solutions. the pa injection with hgf induced significant angiogenesis around the injected site, in marked contrast to hgf injection alone and pa injection alone. the combination of hgf -induced angiogenesis is a promising procedure to improve tissue regeneration