Intercellular Instructed-Assembly Mimics Protein Dynamics To Induce Cell Spheroids.

ABSTRACT: Cell-mediated remodeling of extracellular matrix (ECM) plays important roles for cell functions, but it is challenging to develop synthetic materials for mimicking such a dynamic aspect of proteins in ECM. Here we show that intercellular morphological transition of peptide assemblies mimic the unfolding of fibronectin, thus enabling formation of spheroids from a monolayer of cells. Specifically, the phosphopeptide self-assembles to form nanoparticles, which turns into nanofibers upon partial dephosphorylation catalyzed by enzymes (e.g., phosphatases) at intercellular space. Occurring between HS-5 cells, such an enzyme-instructed self-assembly enables a sheet of the HS-5 cells to form cell spheroids. Structure-activity investigation reveals that proteolytic stability, dephosphorylation, and

SUBMITTER: Wang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6542364 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature