Abstract
Most cells within the human body interact with neighboring cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components to establish a unique 3D organization. These cell–cell and cell–ECM interactions form a complex communication network of biochemical and mechanical signals critical for normal cell physiology. The behavior of cells in a 3D environment is fundamentally different from that of cells in monolayer culture. Aggregation can affect cell–cell interactions, being more representative of the normal tissue microenvironment. Therefore, 3D cell culture technologies have been developed. The general method for cell aggregate is a physical method; it is difficult to control the size and number of cell aggregates. In any case, no chemical method has been discovered yet, so a new method to solve these problems is needed. In this paper, we describe the induction of a cell aggregate of the newly discovered (Lys-Pro)12(KP24) peptide. Since it was revealed that KP24 had cell aggregate-inducing activity, its derivatives were molecularly designed to clarify the importance of the KP24 sequence. We report that cell aggregations were induced by KP24 to form aggregates of fibroblast cells. We evaluated KP24 derivative periodic peptides such as (Lys-Pro-Pro)8(KPP24) and (Lys-Lys-Pro)8(KKP24). The relationship between the structure of the peptide chain and the activity induced by the cell aggregations was investigated from the viewpoint of basic research and the biomedical engineering field.
Highlights
Most cells within the human body interact with neighboring cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components to establish a unique 3D organization
Conventional cell culture is performed in 2D systems, which is very different from the local environment of cells in living tissues
We describe the induction of cell aggregate of the newly discovered
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Current methods involve labor-intensive processes, low productivity, and difficulty in spheroid size control, and various alternative spheroid culture techniques using functional biomaterials have been developed Since this method is physical, it is difficult to control the size and number of cell aggregates. Among the repeating peptides of proline (Pro) and lysine (Lys), the peptide in which proline and lysine were repeated 12 times was the most effective, and the peptide sequence was (Lys-Pro) (KP24) This method is a chemical cell aggregate inducting method and is a completely new concept. Peptide sequence and chain length dependence were evaluated by adding a peptide-containing medium to statically cultured cells and inducing cell aggregates
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