Design and production of a chimeric resilin-, elastin-, and collagen-like engineered polypeptide

Bracalello, A., Santopietro, V., Vassalli, M. , Marletta, G., Del Gaudio, R., Bochicchio, B. and Pepe, A. (2011) Design and production of a chimeric resilin-, elastin-, and collagen-like engineered polypeptide. Biomacromolecules, 12(8), pp. 2957-2965. (doi: 10.1021/bm2005388) (PMID:21707089)

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Abstract

Protein-inspired biomaterials have gained great interest as an alternative to synthetic polymers, in particular, for their potential use as biomedical devices. The potential inspiring models are mainly proteins able to confer mechanical properties to tissues and organs, such as elasticity (elastin, resilin, spider silk) and strength (collagen, silk). The proper combination of repetitive sequences, each of them derived from different proteins, represents a useful tool for obtaining biomaterials with tailored mechanical properties and biological functions. In this report we describe the design, the production, and the preliminary characterization of a chimeric polypeptide, based on sequences derived from the highly resilient proteins resilin and elastin and from collagen-like sequences. The results show that the obtained chimeric recombinant material exhibits promising self-assembling properties. Young’s modulus of the fibers was determined by AFM image analysis and lies in the range of 0.1–3 MPa in agreement with the expectations for elastin-like and resilin-like materials.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Vassalli, Professor Massimo
Authors: Bracalello, A., Santopietro, V., Vassalli, M., Marletta, G., Del Gaudio, R., Bochicchio, B., and Pepe, A.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering
Journal Name:Biomacromolecules
Publisher:American Chemical Society
ISSN:1525-7797
ISSN (Online):1526-4602

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record