Our platform technology is a novel self-healing hydrogel that easily transforms into a liquid, and just as easily transforms back into gel.
The hydrogel is stable in neutral pH and remains as gel formation in a wide range of temperatures from 2° C to 80° C. PepGel has developed this technology for use in 3D cell culture, and other uses may include sustained release drug/protein delivery, cell therapy, vaccine, wound healing, cosmetic and orthopedic applications.
The PepGel hydrogel is a synthetic peptide-based material with 19 amino acid residues. The primary structure of peptide was rationally designed from the combination of spider silk and trans-membrane segment of human muscle L-type calcium channel. The peptide has great balance of hydrophobic, hydrophilic and charged segments which contribute to the material stability in neutral pH and different temperature.
The mechanical strength of the hydrogel presents a special shear-thinning and rapid recovery property, which allows this hydrogel system to be delivered as an injectable material by syringe or pipette multiple times. Other stunning uses include:
| Sensor Design | Cell Releasing Agent |
| Changing orientation | Novel filtration methods |
| Use with microscopic probes | Imaging Phantoms |
| Optical Coherence Tomography | With/Without nanoparticles |
| Partial Wave Spectroscopy | Photo-acoustic Spectroscopy |
Peptide Hydrogelation and Cell Encapsulation for 3D Culture of MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells.
PLOS ONE, 2013, e59482
Design of a shear-thinning recoverable peptide hydrogel from native sequences and application for influenza H1N1 vaccine adjuvant
Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 8905-8912.
Structural Transformation and Physical Properties of a Hydrogel-Forming Peptide Studied by NMR, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Dynamic Rheometer.
Biophysical Journal. 2012, 103, 979-988
Rational Design of Responsive Self-Assembling Peptides from Native Protein Sequences
Biomacromolecules, 2010, 11, 3390-3394.
Peptide nanofiber hydrogel adjuvanted live virus vaccine enhances cross-protective immunity to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus
Vaccine, 2013, 31, 4508-4515.
Design and Demonstration of a Pumpless 14 Compartment Microphysiological System
Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 2213–2227.
The 3D cell culture was prepared using PGmatrix™ RPMI solution and mixed with cell suspension.
ZR-75 cells were resuspended in 1 mM PGmatrix in 10% RPMI media. Additional 10% RPMI media were added to the top of the culture and these media were changed every 2 days. The image was captured at Day 11 of a single cell suspension at Day 0.
The 3D cell culture was prepared using PGmatrix™ MEM solution mixed with cell suspension (MEM medium with 10% serum) at 1:1 ratio.
Figure 1 below shows the morphology of cell colonies in 3D hydrogel matrix over 5 days.
In the Figure 2 below, the left side represents the XY axis view of LSCM image showing MCF-7 cell growth in h9e hydrogel.
Figure 3a below, shows data for cells that were cultured in PGmatrix hydrogel for 5 days and were treated with 40 µM cisplatin for 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10 days via three methods, in columns left to right: Surface, Transwell and Pre-mixed with hydrogel.
Figure 3b shows the value of IC50 of cisplatin in MCF-7 cells under hydrogel culture.
Figure 4c below on the left shows MCF-7 cells that were cultured in 2D monolayer for 2 days, and Figure 4d on the right shows MCF-7 cells that were cultured in 3D hydrogels for 7 days.
Figure 5 below shows MCF-7 cells that were cultured in hydrogel for 7 days without cisplatin treatment.
Figure 6 below shows MCF-7 cells that were cultured in hydrogel for 5 days and then treated with 30 µM cisplatin for 48 hours in hydrogel via “pre-mixed” method.
References:
Huang H, Ding Y, Sun X, Nguyen TA. Peptide Hydrogelation and Cell Encapsulation for 3D Culture of MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells.
PLOS ONE, 2013, e59482
Huang, H, Sun, X. Shear-Thinning and Rapid-Recovery Peptide Hydrogel for Biomedical Applications. MRS Proceeding, 2014, 1622.
Liang J, Liu G, Wang J, Sun XS Controlled release of BSA-linked cisplatin through a PepGel self-assembling peptide nanofiber hydrogel scaffold. Amino Acids: The Forum for Amino Acid, Peptide and Protein Research, 29 May 2017.