Veleva A.N., Patterson C., Cooper S.L.
North Carolina State University, US
Keywords: bio-molecular engineering, biomimetic, regenerative medicine
We report for the first time the selection of novel peptides that are highly specific for endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) by screening phage display libraries. Our strategy for isolation of ligand peptides for cell surface receptors is designed to allow using whole cells as an affinity matrix. This approach has the great advantage that the receptors are more likely to be in their native confirmation with all their natural post-translational modifications and that neither purification nor prior knowledge of a particular target receptor is required. An additional strength of this approach is that it is highly inductive and it does not rely on knowledge of which surface molecules are present, in what concentration and with what specificity. To avoid non specific binding, we first negatively select phages by incubating them with non EPC. Phage clones that survive the negative selection are then reacted with EPC. To demonstrate the utility of the phage display selected, EPC-specific peptide sequences, free peptides have been synthesized and covalently immobilized to a biomaterial surface to design biomimetic materials to be used as tissue engineering scaffolds. The results from this study identify aspects that could be exploited for rational design of biomaterials on a molecular level.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 1, Technical Proceedings of the 2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 1
Published: May 8, 2005
Pages: 55 - 58
Industry sector: Medical & Biotech
Topic: Biomaterials
ISBN: 0-9767985-0-6