Protein conformational transition microenvironment in silk fibroin hydrogels: proliferation and chondrogenesis of encapsulated stem cells.

ABSTRACT: Chemically crosslinked silk fibroin (SF) hydrogels exhibit excellent extracellular matrix-mimicking features and tunable mechanical characteristics, making them highly promising for 3D cell culture and tissue engineering. However, the protein segments within SF hydrogels can spontaneously undergo a conformational transition from random coil to β-sheet, inducing dynamic changes in the material's mechanical properties and pore structures. Such dynamical material cues could probably have significant effects on cell behaviors, thus inducing a kind of unknown influence which cannot be ignored when applying these hydrogels in 3D cell culture and tissue repair. Based on this, the current research seeks to clearly reveal the impacts of the protein conformational transition microenvironment

SUBMITTER: Zhao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12598285 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature